


When All the Lights Go Out

by count-to-seventeen (parisienneheart)



Series: Count to Seventeen and Close Your Eyes [2]
Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album), My Chemical Romance
Genre: Amnesia, Battery City, Conspiracy, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, Dystopia, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Minor Character Death, Mystery, Non-Graphic Violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Road Trips, Team as Family, Thriller
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 10:46:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 121,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7841734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parisienneheart/pseuds/count-to-seventeen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part 2 of the Count To Seventeen series and a direct sequel to A Dream Where the Fallout Lies.</p><p>This story takes place after the events of the SING music video and the Fabulous Killjoys are declared dead. Four months after her adventure ended with the guys, Leya chooses not to believe things happened exactly the way they were reported, and she heads off on a personal quest to find out the truth. But even though she finds that the ghosts of her past are indeed alive, things are far from all right and there are still answers she is missing, which require her to embark on another dangerous journey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposting this fic from my tumblr [count-to-seventeen.tumblr.com](http://count-to-seventeen.tumblr.com)
> 
> This installment of the series is a bit darker than the first part, but it's also emotionally deeper and focuses a lot more on the concept of friendship and grief. There is a character who is afflicted by a traumatic experience, the symptoms of which greatly resemble PTSD, and it's highly alluded to in the fic, but not explicitly said out loud. And that's because I'm not a psychologist and cannot diagnose and I didn't intend this character to have PTSD as clinically diagnosed, but they are suffering from trauma. Anyway, that's a disclaimer just for that topic.
> 
>  
> 
> _Additional disclaimer: this is a work of fiction and is not affiliated with the individuals the characters are based on and i do not profit from this transformative work_

In the dark, my eyes shot open. There was no hint of tiredness in my limbs, no sense of drowsiness. I didn’t even need an alarm to know when I was supposed to wake up.

I’m not too surprised—this moment has been all I’ve been thinking about for a couple months now. Finally, I’ll be able to go through with the plan. As long as everything goes smoothly tonight. So I wasn’t about to let myself oversleep. My body must have been aware of that subconsciously.

I sat up on the bed and reached down next to it to turn on the small lantern. The walls in my bedroom glowed orange.

It was convenient that I had this room all to myself. I didn’t have to worry about sneaking out while someone else slept.

I jumped up from bed and reached down underneath the mattress to get the 500 C’s Caelan and I had earned through various jobs and dealings with drifter Killjoys. It wasn’t much, but it would be enough to get us by for a few weeks. I also picked up the newspaper issue I kept under the mattress, folding it into the small, red polyester cinch bag I was taking.

I slipped on jeans and boots, pulled on a dark green t-shirt, and zipped on my black hoodie—these were all acquired through friends in Sweetwater or from abandoned homes I came across on my pilgrimages out to the desert. I smoothed out my long, dark hair before I remembered—

I bent down to the floor and picked up a small cardboard box from underneath the bed. I opened it up, and pushed aside the old newspaper wrap to reveal my most prized possession—the power glove that Mikey had given me almost 4 months ago. I never had a reason to use it, but it serves mostly as a reminder that he existed—that those 4 men existed. It’s also the reason I’m alive at all.

I slid the power glove onto my right hand and turned on the power button. I felt a slight warmth in my palm. I cracked a little smile, then shut the power off, stuffing the glove into the vinyl bag as well.

Everything else I needed was in the car. I slung the strap of the bag over my right shoulder and turned off the lamp in my room. I quietly turned the doorknob to my room’s door, and tiptoed out into the hallway, the door making the softest click as it closed.

I had to go find Caelan.

I stepped lightly through the hallway. It’s 2am, and it feels like even the breath I take in makes too much noise. After an annoyingly tense 3 minutes, I got to Caelan’s door. I looked underneath and it was still black.

He better not be sleeping…

At just that moment, his door opened, creaking a bit. He stepped out.

“Hey—“ he started as I put my hand over his mouth. Unfortunately, I could not reprove him for his lack of tact at the moment. I let go of his face and grabbed his left hand to drag him out of the building.

Once we were outside the double doors, I breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at the sky. Stars strung all over, but no moon in sight. Was this a good or bad omen?

“Do you want me to radio Ronnie right now?” Caelan asked. Now that I could see a bit more outside, I could see him wearing a similar outfit, with jeans, a gray pullover hoodie, and white and black sneakers on. His tousled, voluminous brown hair was sticking out of his hood.

“Yes, radio her. But not until we’ve gotten farther from the dormitory. We need to get over to the Firebird quickly now,” I told him as I started walking.

“Ok,” Caelan responded as he followed me in a speedwalk. I had no time for dawdling around right now if I wanted this all to go as well as it could. But I also couldn’t do this by myself. Which was why Caelan was with me. And Ronnie, who was on watch duty at the tower tonight, was our other partner in crime.

“*BEEP*Ronnie, we’re on our way to the Firebird,” Caelan spoke through the walkie talkie. We had bought them off of one of the Killjoys that came to Sweetwater 3 weeks ago. He had created his own portable energy source for them, saving the need to find conventional batteries, which were hard to come by this far out from Battery City.

“*BEEP*Roger that, gosling,” we heard Ronnie’s voice come out from the receiver. 

“Gosling?” Caelan muttered in indignation.

“It’s just a nickname, Caelan,” I said in an appeasing tone, laughing a bit to myself.

“*BEEP* I’ll signal you when we’re at the gate,” Caelan told Ronnie.

Once we got to the dusty lot where all the cars were parked, I looked around to make sure no one saw us. Everything was dark and I only had a small flashlight to illuminate the way to my car. The eery white glow of the dirt gave me chills.

“You think we’re gonna get caught?” Caelan asked me with a chuckle.

“I don’t plan on it,” I muttered in response. “And anyway, there’s no turning back. I’m leaving Sweetwater tonight, whether I get chased or not.”

“Ok…I was just asking…” Caelan replied with an uncomfortable turn of his head.

We threw our bags into the car and I released the parking brake. Caelan and I reached the back of the trunk and I stretched my arms and cracked my knuckles before putting my hands to the metal.

“Ready to push?” I asked as I turned to Caelan.

“Yup.”

“Let’s do it, then,” I said as we both started pushing the car. My muffler didn’t work so well, so there was no way I was going to drive it out of Sweetwater while waking up all the residents with the loud rumbling of the Firebird. I had parked it facing the gate, so there was no need for anyone to be at the wheel steering it.

Caelan and I were pushing at a run making great time towards the gate. Since the incident with Korse those few months ago, the gate was never fully repaired, and only a single electrical fence stood between us and the world.

“Radio Ronnie!” I quickly told Caelan. Now that we had momentum, I didn’t want to stop.

Caelan snatched the walkie talkie out of his pocket. “*BEEP* Ronnie! We’re nearly at the gate! Open it now.”

“*BEEP* Got it,” Ronnie replied.

We still pushed the car toward the gate waiting for it to open.

The only noise the gate made as it opened was the rattling of the metal upon it. Nothing that would be heard over by the dormitory, though.

It seemed like it was taking forever to open, and we were advancing upon it faster.

“Leya, maybe we should slow down a bit,” Caelan told me.

“No, we’ll be fine! Just keep pushing, I don’t want us to lose our momentum. We still have to push this car about half a mile past Sweetwater.”

Caelan sighed. “Okay…”

The gate was still opening very slowly, but it hadn’t opened up wide enough for the Firebird to fit through. We were only 20 feet away from it now.

“Leya, maybe we should really slow down now, I mean, that gate is stupidly slow…” Caelan said with a tense chuckle.

“No, we’ll be fine…” I said as I kept my hands on the trunk.

Closer and closer we got to the gate, and it still didn’t look like it was quite wide enough—but we’d make it.

Caelan switched his gaze between me and the gate. “Leya, seriously! I don’t think we’re going to get through that small gap. Just wait!”

“We’ll be fine!” I argued back.

After a couple of seconds, Caelan released his hands from the car, leaving the weight to me. I felt my biceps burn from pushing now.

“Caelan!” I snapped as I kept pushing along.

I have to get through this, I’ll do it myself, I don’t even care! I continued to push the car, using all my strength and as soon as I reached the threshold of the gate, I found that the car went along smoothly, without touching the gate at all.

“Leya, what the fuck?!” I could hear Caelan yell as I pushed the car across as the gate moved even farther from me. Which was completely ridiculous because it was clear that I was halfway across the threshold and there had been no noise other than his dumbass yelling.

“Radio Ronnie and tell her we got through!” I yelled back to him after I had gotten the car over the threshold.

Caelan ran up while beeping to Ronnie “We just passed through the gate. Thanks a bunch, Ron.”

“*BEEP* No problem, let me know how it all goes when you’re done,” Ronnie replied. “I don’t expect you guys to be back for at least two weeks if all goes well.”

Once Caelan had rejoined my side and started pushing, I snatched the walkie talkie out of his hand and pressed the button on the side. “*BEEP* Thanks so much for this Ronnie. I owe you a huge one. And don’t worry, I’ll make sure your brother doesn’t get himself killed.”

“*BEEP* Thanks Leya, good luck finding your sister!”

The gate stopped and began to close.

“Well, that was fun!” Caelan sarcastically tooted.

“I had the car, clear to go through, and you were freaking out for nothing!” I lashed back to him.

“Because I stopped pushing…” Caelan argued.

“No, because we had enough space. I still had several inches on either side between the gate and the Firebird.”

“Oh, your idea of getting through clear is by a few inches? That’s nice.”

I stopped pushing the car. “Look, Caelan, if you don’t want to help me, you can just go back to your room right now.”

Caelan sighed as he put his arms out. “ _I want to help_ , alright? Besides, I can’t let you go out there by yourself and it seems like it’ll be a grand adventure.”

“Then from now on, you can’t half ass it. There’s no room for hesitation or backing down when you’re faced with a dangerous situation. We’re going to Battery City. This is not just an ‘adventure’. Got it?” I stood with my hands on my hips waiting for his response.

Caelan flicked back the hair that was over his eyes and muttered, “Got it.”

We resumed pushing the car.

“But you know…” Caelan continued while looking at me from the side, “I don’t know why you’re in such a rush. It’s not like getting out of here a few minutes earlier would have made a difference.”

“I’ve been looking for my sister for a year now, Caelan! This is the first time that I feel like I really have a chance at finding her!”

“Yeah, but…rushing so much that you almost wrecked your own car? That’s a little overkill, don’t you think?”

“Look, people are moving all the time around the Zones. If we don’t get to the right people at the right times, we may never find them again.”

“You really think these ‘people’ are going to know where your sister is?” Caelan asked with a look of skepticism.

“They’ll be able to help me on the way, and that’s all that matters,” I replied.

Once we got far enough away from Sweetwater, Caelan and I got into the car and I began to drive off toward Zone 5, the first stop on this journey.

I was going to track down Dr. Death Defying before I got into Battery City. Not only would he know how to get into Battery City without getting killed, but he was the last person to see the Fabulous Killjoys.

I had the headlights turned on since Caelan and I were the only ones out on the road at this time of night. It was a bit eery to see only that stretch of dusty asphalt ahead of me. I turned the knobs in the car stereo to wait for any news from the Zones, any leads at all.

Caelan fell asleep only five minutes into the drive, which I didn’t mind. I feel like I need the time to myself to get everything into perspective.

The Fabulous Killjoys are not dead.

I’ve looked at that news article about five hundred times…the details of how the S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W security valiantly overpowered the Killjoys and saved the city from acts of violent terrorism once and for all…that wasn’t the whole story. It wasn’t the accurate story. They could print up a picture of Gerard in a body bag, but I still don’t believe it.

He’s not dead.

At least…not like that.

He couldn’t be…

And what of the others? There were no photos of them, no detailing of what happened to them—no evidence. And Dr. Death never publicly announced their deaths.

I had found out only 3 weeks after it happened. Usually, newspapers from the city get distributed a bit late to Sweetwater, so no one knew about it until the papers came two weeks after the original publishing date. And I was shielded from it for even longer because the relationship I had with the guys was pretty public there. They were waiting for the right time to tell me.

But there’s really no right time to tell someone that their best friends are dead.

I happened to be visiting with a newly made friend, Amy, in the dormitory when I saw the paper on her desk, opened to the middle section.

“Oh, hey, I didn’t know that there were newspapers all the way out here!” I remember exclaiming.

“Oh…that’s boring, you don’t want to look at that!” Amy said as she got up to not-so-covertly push away the paper.

I laughed, “I haven’t read a newspaper in 3 years. Of course I want to look at that!”

I reached over before she could protest and I flipped the newspaper to the front.

The image I saw sent a chill through me. It was Gerard. But it wasn’t Gerard. It was an image of him extremely pale, his skin bruised in some parts, his head pushed back, his eyes closed. And he was lying in what looked like…a body bag?

I could hardly comprehend it. All the questions in my head…the biggest one was ‘am I having a nightmare?’

But that was proved wrong when Amy snatched the papers from my hands and I returned to reality.

“I didn’t want you to find out this way…” she said, her light blonde hair draping over her mortified face. “None of us did…”

“Find out… find out… about what?” I asked. I still had my hands in the same position, holding an invisible newspaper.

Amy took my hands, which felt cold now. “I think you should sit down,” she said as she led me to sit on her bed.

“The Fabulous Killjoys…well…they’re…” she started with a painful frown on her face.

I got it before she even explained it. And I found myself sobbing right there. It was only later that night, after I had just sat in my room by myself all day, that Amy slipped the paper under my door for me to read.

“FABULOUS KILLJOYS SLAIN BY S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W AGENTS” the headline read. Just like an old Depression-era newspaper casually announcing the death of Bonnie and Clyde or John Dillinger.

It was there in print, day after day. The Fabulous Killjoys were no more.

Services and memorials were held for them. Some people would constantly tell tales of encounters they each had with them. Some people refused to speak of them at all. But almost everyone was saying how they “knew it would happen.” They “knew” that going to Battery City sealed the guys’ death sentence.

Grief and reverence turned into contempt and abandon. Instead of being an example to look up to, the Fabulous Killjoys became an example of what not to be. You didn’t really hear anyone saying “Killjoys never die” anymore. You didn’t really hear much of anything positive after. Not even from Dr. Death.

The story from fellow Killjoys goes that he and a few of his friends had rescued that little girl Grace, but they didn’t get there in time to save the guys.

It’s all and well believable, but how could Dr. Death, the voice of the rebel army, not inform anyone of what happened to the Killjoys? You would think that since they were so close, that since they were such important figures in our world, their freaking _deaths_ would warrant some type of announcement, if not a eulogy of some type from the radio DJ.

But there was nothing. His movements seemed to halt right after the incident, no one has seen him lately, there’s been no word on Grace… It’s all too suspicious.

That’s why I’m driving toward Zone 5 right now. I’d been keeping my eyes and ears open for any news that would help me find the Killjoys. I have to find Dr. Death Defying. If there’s anyone that’s closest to knowing the truth about the guys, it’s him. So I’ve been keeping tabs on his whereabouts through his radio announcements, gossip from drifters, and general patterns of movement from him. I’ve got maps, references, and enough C’s to bribe information from people. I won’t stop until I find him.

Maybe I _am_ in denial. Maybe I’m being too hopeful.

But I don’t believe that the Fabulous Killjoys are dead. There is too much shadow surrounding the story of their demise. Of course, the media expects everyone to believe the story because of that snapshot of Gerard in the body bag. But the media has been infamous for its many illusions and deceit.

I don’t believe anything I read or see.

I don’t believe in anything but what I witness for myself.

And even if this journey throws me at a dead-end or at the foot of the enemy, I won’t stop until I know the truth.


	2. Chapter 2

I drove along the dusty road until I got tired, which was at about 5am. There was a coordinate marked on the map for sand dunes which served as “safe” camping grounds for travelling Killjoys. Whatever that means. It took forever just to go through dirt roads and hills to get there. I almost didn’t make it up one steep hill.

The sky was still dark. Even though the world had been turned upside down by radiation, Winter still held its solar pattern, if only for a few more weeks before Spring heat returned. Winter was usually the nicest time of the year; in some places it got to be as low as 75° F. Of course, being in Zone 6, it usually reached to an uncomfortable 90° F high during the day.

But right now, the coldest time of the day, it was nice enough that I was wearing this zip-up hoodie without getting hot.

I parked in a hidden space between two sand dunes. I turned off the lights, locked all the doors, put the sun shades against the windows and slipped on the power glove. There was no telling what could happen out here. I pushed my seat’s lever down so I could use the seat as a makeshift bed.

Finally, sleep.

 

Caelan and I woke up at around 10am, once the car started to become unbearably hot. The area I had parked in provided a bit of shelter, and the large nearly 30-ft tall sand hills would provide a bit of shade later on.

“Gosh…I’m starving…” Caelan yawned as he stretched out his back at the side of the car.

I was unzipping my sweater as I answered, “Get the rations out of the trunk, then. And don’t eat too much. We’ve only got enough C’s to last us a few weeks out here, and I don’t want us to run out of food too early.”

“Would you chill?” Caelan said as he went over to the trunk, holding his palm out. “I’m not a kid anymore, you know.”

I tossed him the key to the Firebird.

“Right…you turned 18 like two weeks ago,” I laughed as I placed my sweater in the seat I was in. I closed the door and joined Caelan at the trunk.

“Keep laughing, old hag,” Caelan muttered as he reached for an aluminum can of sliced peaches. He tossed another one to me and picked up two spoons from one small zipper bag.

“I’m just saying…it gets really hot out here. You’re gonna be tempted to eat or get a drink pretty often, and the desperation could make it hard to resist,” I continued as I opened the can with its built in opener.

“I’ll be fine,” Caelan replied as he closed the trunk and handed me the key.

We made our way toward the nearest sand hill and sat at the foot of it in the small area of shade we had. The dirt felt cool and nice.

“So what’s the plan?” Caelan asked as he dipped his spoon into the peaches.

“Well, we have to get to Zone 5 tonight. This guy came by Sweetwater about a month ago, and he told me that if we wanted to know anything, that we’d find our guy with answers here,” I explained as I pointed to the road map I had. I had various points circled in black marker. “It’s a sort of bar. Anyway, it’s a popular stop for Killjoys that pass through. It’s called The Black Widow.”

“Sounds lovely,” Caelan snidely remarked.

“There’s a bartender there,” I continued. “Goes by the name Angel Eyes—Angel, for short—“

Caelan rolled his eyes.

I chuckled. “Come on, Caelan, we’re in Killjoy country, now. You’re gonna hear a lot of ridiculous names. It’s for protection. Speaking of which, you need one.”

“I already have the perfect name,” Caelan said as he eyed me with a raised eyebrow.

“Do you, now?” I asked as I tilted my head.

“Yeah. You ready for it? The Crimson Falcon,” Caelan said with a slight squint of his eyes as he let each word hang in the air.

I started cracking up despite my will not to. “God, that’s lame!”

Caelan looked down in embarrassment. “Shut up… I thought it was cool…” he said out of the side of his mouth.

“I’m sorry… Sorry…” I said as I cleared my throat. “It’s alright. My Killjoy name wasn’t that great either.”

“I liked it,” Caelan said with a smile.

I smiled back. “Well, thank you! But I think that’s probably because of your bad taste. But it was pretty lame—Stellar Jazz. Frank used to give me crap for—“ I stopped mid sentence and looked down.

It was still hard to talk about them.

“Frank? Was he someone you knew out in the Zones?” Caelan asked as he met my eyes. I never told him the real names of the Fabulous Killjoys, so he wouldn’t know who I was talking about.

“Uh…yeah,” I answered. “Anyway, I don’t need a Killjoy name anymore. It was only to protect me from Korse, and he knew my real name, anyway, so a Killjoy name is pretty pointless for me.”

Caelan was still quiet. He was looking at me like he was concerned or something.

“But you still need to be protected,” I told him.

Caelan started to protest, “I don’t need—“

“No! If there’s any way that you get tracked down or your family gets tracked down, it’ll all be on me,” I told him.

“Fine. How about Red Falcon?” Caelan asked, tilting his eyebrows up.

“Sure,” I say with a weak chuckle.

“Anyway, go on with telling me about this bartender guy we’re supposed to get info from,” Caelan continued as he took another spoonful of peaches.

“Right,” I said as I picked up my road map again. I had scrawled notes on the back. “His name’s Angel. We gotta go to The Black Widow tonight, and sit at the bar. He’ll only give information for cash, too. But he sees all kinds of people pass through, so he’s bound to know a lot.”

“Great! Then we should start heading over there now!” Caelan exclaimed with a grin.

“No. There’s no use going during the day. That bar only opens up at sundown. Besides, traveling during the day with Dracs on the loose is never too bright of an idea. It’ll be better for us to go at night,” I explained as I started eating the sweet glazed peaches now.

“So what are we supposed to do all day?!” Caelan glared at me.

“Wait,” was all I replied before I took another spoonful.

And we did wait. For one hour. Then two. Then three. When the shade started to recede from where we were sitting, Caelan started to complain.

“This is boring. Can’t we just go somewhere right now?” he whined. He had his hand in his hair, pushing back the sweat from his forehead.

“And where do you suggest we even go?” I asked as I crossed my arms. “Do you see anything out there?”

Caelan and I looked at the sparse expanse of brown dirt, with scrub scattered all around. There was nothing but desert and blue sky.

Caelan crossed his arms. “Well, aren’t there other points you marked on that map?”

“Just gas stations and more inland stops,” I replied. “This is Zone 6. There’s no one and nothing out here.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…we have to sit out here for another five hours???” Caelan had his head back as he put his palms on his face.

I was about to retaliate when I heard something strange.

Like a buzzing sound.

“Do you hear that?” I asked Caelan.

“No. What are you talking about?” he asked with a droll, droopy eyed look.

I focused on my hearing and I could still hear a faint buzzing and what sounded like a cry from far away.

I got up on my feet and dusted my pants off.

Something’s out there…

Caelan looked up at me. “What is it?”

“Shh!” I said as I stuck a palm out at Caelan. I looked all around in the desert, but couldn’t see anything. So where the hell was this noise coming from?

The buzzing became louder and then I heard the cry again.

“Yee-haw!” It was high pitched and sounded not too far away. I spun around, but still didn’t see anything.

“Please tell me you hear that now…” I told Caelan. He started looking around him in confusion as well.

The buzzing became louder, and it was clearly an engine—a shitty engine—it sounded kind of like a dirt bike, sharp and dissonant.

Still nothing around us…

“Caelan, do you have the ray gun on you?” I asked.

“I left it in the car…” he answered.

Seriously, this kid…

“Well, hurry and get it! I have a feeling we’re going to need it…” I told him as the buzzing became even louder.

As he ran over to the car, the engines roared to a cacophony right above me.

I looked up to see dust sifting over from the top of the hill. The buzzing diminished to a rumble, and once the dust cleared, I could see them.

It was two men on what looked like two motor scooters. Unlike the usual tires on motor scooters, these thick, rubber tires were probably 22 inches in diameter.

The two men were extremely tan, wearing gaudy goggles that looked like they were made of scrap metal. They were both dressed in what looked like ponchos made out of blue and yellow plastic trash bags, their hair in long, filthy dreads, and their scooters graffittied all over with weird symbols.

“Well…Lookie here! Looks like two drifters done found a way into our territory,” said one as he picked up his goggles over his head.

“Trespassers,” the other one remarked in a gruff voice.

“Yeah, trespassers. Eh, you know, trespassin’s still a crime, right?” asked the first one.

“Sure is,” answered the other.

“Well, ya’ll are criminals then!” the first one said as he pointed down to me.

At that moment, Caelan slammed the passenger door of the car.

“And you guys got an automobile! Bet you stole it,” said the man with the gruff voice.

“Look, we don’t want any trouble—“ I started replying.

“You don’t want trouble? No trouble?!” exclaimed the first man. “But you’re a criminal! And you know what we do to criminals?”

“We punish em,” added the second.

“We’ll leave right now without a fight,” I said, inching closer toward the base of the sand hill. My map was still on the ground.

“Hmm…that don’t sit too well with me. ‘Cause I love to fight!” yelled the first man. He revved the biting engine on the scooter, and the second man followed.

I lunged forward to the ground and picked up my road map, stuffing it into my pants.

“Leya, hurry!” Caelan yelled as he stayed by the car.

The two men on scooters had gone around down the sand hill and were circling around to get close to us.

“Kaboom!” The first one yelled as he threw a few small objects toward the base of the hill.

A blast sparked through the small area I just ran from and dirt started to slide from the hill.

“Caelan, use the gun!” I shouted as I ran toward the car.

Caelan looked back at me speechlessly, raising the gun with both hands toward the approaching drifters.

“What you gonna do with that blaster, boy?!” the one with the gruff voice taunted. He sped up and got around toward the car where Caelan was. Caelan started shooting—with terrible aim.

“Caelan, get in the car!” I shouted as I started running up, key in my hand.

He barely opened the car door before the man zipped past the car and banged the car door shut with what looked like a wooden bat.

“I’ll get the girl!” the first one yelled out as he started coming my way.

I was only 10 feet away from the car, I could make it! Even though I’m sweaty and shaking…

“Come here, pretty!” he jeered as he came toward me. I stopped and waited. Three, two, one…

“Gah!” I screamed out as I leaped to the side before the scooter ran into me. I kicked out at the scooter, making the man lose his balance and skid in the dirt.

I finished sprinting toward the car door before the two crazy drifters could catch up to me again.

“Get rid of the shades!” I shouted to Caelan as I jumped into the seat, shoved the key into the ignition, and turned the car on, getting ready to press on the clutch before I started driving off.

Caelan barely got the shades off from the front before something crashed into the back of the car.

“Ahh!” Caelan and I screamed. I floored the car engine, even though I could only see what was in front of us and the view of the side mirrors.

“Roll down your window!” I frantically gasped as I sped along on the dirt, shifting gears so quick, that it was hurting my poor, grinding car.

“They could get in, though!” Caelan shouted.

“I’m burning up in this car, Caelan. Roll down the damn window!” I shouted as I rolled my own down. The breeze was reassuring, but I could see the two maniacs following not too far behind us.

“You won’t get away from us that quick!” one shouted.

“Yeah, you’re gonna be dead! Dead! Dead flies!”

Eventually, the car outsped them as I reached 80 miles per hour, furiously bumping along the dirt, but I could hear them still shouting from far away.

“You’re dead! We’re all dead! Hahaha, we’re all dead flies! Dead flies in the summertime!” was the last maniacal rant fading away in the distance.

“Fucking hell…” I exhaled as I caught a glimpse of the black strip of road not too far away.

“What the hell was that?!” Caelan screamed out. He was sweating and the ray gun was still shaking in his hands.

“Just some people that have been lost out here for too long,” I answered as I gently took the gun from Caelan’s hands. He cleared his throat in embarrassment as he put an elbow on the windowsill.

We drove on several miles until we reached a gas station. Unlike the one at the checkpoint that I stayed at with the Fabulous Killjoys, this one required money to work. 8 C’s a gallon.

The rest of the day, Caelan and I were parked nearly half a mile from the bar. The drifter who told me about it also informed me that if I was taking a car there, it would be best to leave it far out of reach of potential thieves.

After the sun made its descent, Caelan and I made our way to The Black Widow. The air was warm enough that we didn’t need our hoodies on. But I made sure Caelan had the ray gun strapped to his knee in case anything happened.

After a short walk, we made it to The Black Widow. And boy, was it not what I expected.

The outside was decorated by a giant marquee of a black widow. It reminded me a lot of the one on the Trans-Am… It was outlined with green neon lighting. Just underneath the marquee is a porch, a very ordinary porch until you spot the gray statue of a woman literally dressed with the gaudiest lingerie, sheer pink and lace, with a rhinestone beaded eyepatch to match the bad taste. Only a few bikes were parked right outside the building.

On the inside, it stretched far back across wood-paneled floor and smelled of cigarette ash and stale beer. It was pretty narrow, but very long. The bar was along the left wall not too far from the entrance. It was lit up with neon lights, all different words strung together. Various mannequins, male and female, lined the walls, all in different poses with odd outfits strewn on. There were also two purple, graffittied pool tables, carvings stuck in the wood all over, and small square tables, only two of them matching in design, strewn across the floor until the area became separated in a long, wide open space in front of a stage. The stage from this distance looked pretty tiny and crooked, lit up by a multitude of colored lights. And if that was a stage, did that mean that there was live music? There was already some type of punk rock music playing, probably operated by that old style jukebox sitting in between the pool tables and the small square tables.

“Pretty sweet place,” Caelan remarked as he took it all in at the same time.

“Yeah. Now let’s find our guy…” I said as I started making my way to the bar.

I hate to admit it, but I don’t look my age, and even then, I’m not the legal age in Battery City to drink. But in the Zones, it never mattered. And you wouldn’t believe how much easier it was to get your hands on alcohol than water out in the desert…

Caelan and I sat at the far right edge of the bar, on stools that felt like they were made out of foam covered pieces of wood. It wasn’t very comfortable.

“What are you kids doin’ in here?” asked the bartender, a stout man of average height and muscular arms. His dark hair was spiked up and tipped with red and blue dye. He had a scruffy beard and moustache, and looked like he was in his early thirties. He was wearing a stained tan apron and a black muscle shirt shredded on the sides underneath it.

“I’m not a kid! I’m eighteen!” Caelan proudly tooted.

I had to fight the urge to hit my head against the counter in secondhand embarrassment.

The bartender just looked at Caelan with raised eyebrows.

“We’re just passing through,” I said, trying to make the bartender forget about Caelan. “Are you Angel?”

The bartender scrunched his lips and placed his hands on the counter. “Depends. Who wants to know?”

“Just me,” I said, hastily. Making sure to lower my voice, I continued, “I heard you were the one to go to if I wanted answers.”

The bartender looked to the side and chuckled. “You know, you are way too serious to be out here, kid.”

I creased my eyebrows in indignation.

“I tell her that all the time…” Caelan remarked with a smile.

“Well, are you able to help me or not?” I urgently asked.

The bartender rose up and laughed. “How ‘bout you have a couple of drinks of first. I hate doing business dry.”

I scrunched my eyebrows in frustration at this. I just wanted to get answers as quick as possible.

“And yes…the name’s Angel. And you are…?” he asked with a tilted eyebrow.

“Leya,” I answered, keeping my arms crossed across my green shirt.

“Leya…That’s a beautiful name,” Angel nodded and grinned. He turned to Caelan. “And you?”

“Red Falcon, sir,” Caelan replied with a stoic face.

Angel turned to me with a bemused look on his face. “I see you got your hands full with this one,” he directed to me.

“You have no idea…” I muttered.

Angel chuckled. “I’ll be back with your drinks.”

“But we didn’t even order,” Caelan protested.

“Don’t worry about it,” Angel said as he walked away laughing to get more orders from people.

“Well, this sure is fun,” Caelan said as he swiveled on his stool. I wasn’t sure if he was being serious or not.

“I really need that drink,” I muttered mostly to myself.

I was granted my wish two minutes later as Angel came back with two half-pint glasses filled with some green-colored drinks. I put the glass up to my nose, and smelled alcohol and some kind of herby scent.

“What is this?” I asked.

“Cactus Spike,” Angel told me with a smug look.

“You better have not spiked this drink,” I told him with a glare.

“Haha, not that kind of spike! And hey, what would I do that for, anyway? I’m not some kind of pedophile!” Angel protested.

“Well, here goes my first drink…” Caelan said before he started downing the liquid.

“You shouldn’t drink so fast,” I warned, but it was too late.

“Ack! What the fuck?! Ughhh…” Caelan groaned as his face turned pink in convulsion. He had drank nearly half of the glass.

Angel was chuckling a lot. “Congrats, man!”

“Was that really your first drink…ever?” I asked Caelan in amusement.

“Of course it was! Only a noob or an alcoholic would down the first drink like that,” Angel crowed. “And he doesn’t look like an alcoholic to me.”

“Well, here goes nothing,” I said as I took a sip. After a hint of weird plant taste in my mouth, it was a bit sweet, and then the alcohol kicked in. “This isn’t half bad…” I remarked.

“Well, well… Miss Priss here actually likes alcohol,” Angel remarked.

“I know how to hold my liquor,” I replied with a sharp look.

“Well, just hang out here until I finish getting everyone else’s drinks. It’s gonna be a busy night. Live band coming up in a couple hours.”

And it was a couple hours before I got the chance to talk to Angel. Caelan stopped after one drink, even though everyone else around him insisted. I had another, but the anxious waiting killed any buzz the alcohol would have given me.

“Can we talk now?” I nearly shouted as Angel came around this side of the bar again.

“Relax, we still got the rest of the night…” Angel replied with a lax stare.

“I don’t have the rest of the night,” I snapped. “I’ve been here two hours, I’ve drunk a whole pint of that Cactus Spike thing, whatever you gave me, and I’ve been sitting here waiting patiently. Now talk!”

Angel looked to the side because people were starting to stare, noticing my outburst.

“Okay, fine, we’ll talk…” Angel said in a quieter voice. “What do you want to know?”

“I want to know how to find Dr. Death Defying,” I told him.

He snorted. “You’re joking, right?”

“I’m dead serious,” I replied as I slipped out 60 C’s from under my wrist. “Do you have any idea where he is?”

Angel discreetly took the money and stuffed it in his apron. “Dr. D’s the hardest person to track down out here in the desert,” Angel answered with a shrug.

“Do you have any idea where he is?” I repeated.

Angel got closer and leaned down on the counter in front of me. “I don’t know where he is, but… his partner, Show Pony, he’s been spotted a few days ago near a friend of mine’s—Lucky Carlo—In the north of Zone 4. About 70 miles from here.”

I stared, waiting for more.

“That’s all I got for you, Leya. Show Pony’s his right hand man. You’ll get better answers about Dr. D from him. He’s a bit of a…flamboyant kind of character. You’ll know him when you see him.”

“Mark your friend’s place on this map for me?” I asked as I pulled my map from my back pocket.

“Sure thing,” Angel said as he took a pen and circled a 5 mile radius in the north of Zone 4. He poked a dot right in the center, “And may I say, you are one smooth operator. A little scary, but smooth.”

“Thank you,” I said with a grin.

Angel smiled as he rolled his eyes. “Hope you don’t have anymore questions for me tonight!”

“Not at the moment,” I answered with a grin. “How about two more drinks for me and my friend Red Falcon over here.”

“You got it!” Angel replied with a laugh.

I turned to Caelan. “We have a new destination!”

“Great!” Caelan replied as he drummed his hands on the counter. “So, what do we do now?”

“Let’s just enjoy tonight while we’re still here,” I answered just before some guys started raising their voices above the live band playing.

“How ‘bout you take it back from me, pretty boy?! If you can…” I heard some loud hick jeering from not too far to the right behind me.

Glass crashed and tinkled on the floor and I heard the skids of shoes upon the wooden floor.

I whipped around to see 5 guys huddling around two others that seemed to be fighting. I could see them grappling with each other, pushing their way against the pool tables next to them, creating a loud racket. I looked around me, and everyone else seemed ignorant to it, nonchalantly sipping away at their drinks or sticking to their conversations.

“Come on!”

“Get that little shit!”

These were the words of the guys huddling around the two fighting. I almost wanted to go break it up myself! But then a loud thud caused the ground to reverberate all the way to where Caelan and I were seated.

I saw the heavier guy go down, some bearded guy who was wearing an old brown army cap and a gray long sleeve thermal underneath a green vest. The other guy gave him a finishing punch to the face, so the bearded guy stuck to the floor looking dazed.

This other guy sprang up, his dark hair not quite long, but long enough for the front section to reach the base of his jawline. He looked young, and he was skinny, but obviously tough. It was all I could gather about him since his dark hair was covering the upper half of his face.

One of the burly, tattooed friends of the bearded guy broke his bottle against the pool table. Another, skinnier bald one took his chain belt from his pants and brandished it as he came closer to the dark-haired skinny guy. The other three brandished their arms.

Wait a minute…five on one is not fair…

One of the more muscular men in a tight-fitting Misfits shirt barreled forward, headbutting the skinny guy in the stomach. But that guy took both his hands and clapped them against either side of the muscular guy’s head. The musclehead went down quick.

The guy with the chain went forward while one of the other beefy guys lunged from the other side to grab the skinny guy around his torso. The skinny guy grunted but threw his legs up to kick up at the face of the guy with the chain. Chain guy stumbled backwards, bleeding from his nose.

The guy with the bottle came forward, and the skinny guy shot his head back into the beefy guy who had him in a hold. The big guy let him go just in time for him to knock the bottle out of the other guy’s hand and give him a sucker punch to the jaw.

The last friend, a shorter, muscular man with short black hair and a white t-shirt ripped at the sleeves, went forward swinging at the skinny guy while Chainy, Beefy, and Bottle surrounded him.

The skinny guy blocked the swings at him, caught the chain with his arm, and used Chainy’s weight against him, knocking him into Bottle and the short guy. He turned around and punched Beefy in the throat, chest, and stomach–and Beefy went down to his knees.

Once they were all down and writhing in pain, the guy with dark hair bent to the ground and picked up what looked like a motorcycle helmet. He hunched his shoulders up and down to adjust his black leather jacket over a red shirt.

He has no scratches on him at all. Who is this guy?

I kept my eyes on him. As he walked away, he left his helmet in one hand while he pushed back the hair from his face across his forehead.

Holy shit.

That face…

I stared harder at this guy’s face, as if that would help me magnify my vision of him. He sniffed and let his dark hair fall back again, only somewhat covering the right side of his face now. He turned left, so his back was facing me now, as he went over to the crowd that surrounded the stage.

Damn it, I didn’t want to lose him…

I need a better look to know that I’m not crazy, that I’m not just seeing things!

Can it really be?

Is that…

Is that Mikey?


	3. Chapter 3

“You okay?” Angel asked me, breaking me from this momentary panic.

I turned my head to him quickly and answered, “yeah, I’m fine.”

“You looked kind of frozen there for a while…” he said as he set down the two drinks for me and Caelan on the counter.

Caelan met my eyes with arched eyebrows above his big brown eyes.

“Yeah, I just kind of…zoned out—Hey, I need to ask you something,” I told Angel.

“Another piece of info?” he asked with a lazy-eyed look of expectance as he held out his left palm.

“Sort of…” I answered as I looked back toward the crowd near the stage. “That guy…that guy that was fighting just now, with the helmet. What do you know about him?”

“Drifter… Never seen him before this week. Been comin’ in every night.”

I kept my eyes fixed on Angel’s green ones, waiting for more.

“Not too social,” he continued. “Seems to be waiting for someone or something—that’s the only reason anyone stays here this long. That’s his third fight this week. I’d be cautious of that one if I were you…”

“Why?” I asked.

“In case you haven’t noticed, not everyone’s exactly friendly around these parts. This ain’t like those little communities in the outlands. Everyone in the Zones is out for themselves. Don’t be surprised if one Killjoy murders another for shelter. You had best be wary of everyone, especially drifters like that one. You know, he doesn’t look like much, but the guy’s pretty tough. Scary tough.”

“Yo, Bartender! Can a chick get a fuckin’ drink round here?! I’ve been waiting for two minutes already!” Shouted a woman from the other end of the bar. She looked like she was in her late 20’s, she was tall, curvy, and looked like she could beat me up.

“That’s all I know,” Angel said as he went to attend to the wild haired woman at the opposite end of the bar.

“What’s up? You interested in that guy or what?” Caelan asked.

“He looked…familiar,” I answered Caelan as I turned back to watch the crowd, looking for the man with the motorcycle helmet.

“Familiar? You mean, you know him? Like from the Zones or from Battery City?”

“He just looks familiar,” I said, not turning to Caelan just yet.

The “band” up on the stage was starting again with their electronics and banging of metal percussion. All the lights were out over there, but between the bodies jumping up and down and the neon lights flashing against the wall, I could see a shadow moving swiftly through the crowd.

It was _him_.

I got up off the stool I was resting on, tucking my hair behind my ears.

“Where are you going?” Caelan asked as he jumped off his stool.

“I’m following that guy.”

“Didn’t you just hear Angel? We shouldn’t mess with someone dangerous like that.”

“If you’re afraid to go up to a guy who knows how to fight, I really don’t know how you plan on getting into Battery City, Caelan,” I said as I crossed my arms.

Caelan rolled his eyes. “Ughh…fine! If we get killed, it’s your fault.”

“Just follow me…” I said as I turned back towards the stage.

I sped-walked with my shoulders back, dodging the bar patrons left and right to slink my way through the crowd. I stood on my toes to look over the multitude of heads to see if I could spot this guy.

“Slow down!” Caelan yelled over the loud music.

A small beam of light entered the stage floor from the side. It was from the door to the men’s bathroom, and none other than that guy with the helmet had just passed through.

“Caelan!” I called as I turned back, causing him to bump into me, hitting my face.

“Ow, what?” he asked.

“He went into the bathroom! You have to go, find out his name, just talk to him!”

“Guys don’t really talk in the bathroom…” Caelan started with a grimace on his face.

“Look, I don’t care! Just get a name or some other kind of valuable information so we can know who he is. I would do it myself if I was a guy!” I argued.

I could see Caelan sigh as he looked to the side. He started off toward the bathroom.

My heart started beating faster. If this is really Mikey, that means he’s alive. Obviously. But that means that maybe the others are alive, too. Please let it be him…

The door opened again, letting in a beam of light. It was the guy with the helmet…but does that mean Caelan talked to him? But if Caelan talked to him, he would have known if it was Mikey or not…

I followed the guy, seeing where he went. As he moved through the crowd, he seemed to be heading towards the front of the bar again. Over here in the dark, it was still hard for me to see his face, with the occasional neon light beam illuminating his dark head.

I saw another beam of light come from the side, and out came Caelan, looking confused and blank faced.

I started to head over to the guy. Maybe Caelan wouldn’t have recognized him. After all, they only met that one day.

As I B-lined toward him through the crowd, I got pushed by some of the clubbers dancing and lost my view. I kept moving in the same direction I was headed in and…nothing.

He was gone.

“What the hell?” I whispered aloud to myself.

“Leya!” I turned around to see Caelan standing next to me.

“Caelan, did you get his name?” I yelled over the loud music.

“No,” he told me in disappointment.

“Well, did you get any information on him? Did you get a good look at his face?” I yelled out.

“No! He was already going when I went in, so I didn’t want to talk to him!” Caelan told me with a furrow in his brow.

I narrowed my eyes and let out a shallow sigh. I turned around to go toward the front of the bar.

“What? I’m sorry! I mean…I didn’t want to be, you know, awkward!” Caelan protested after me.

I was busy looking for the guy with the helmet. I walked across the wooden planks, almost stomping my feet into the ground in frustration.

“Wait, there he is!” I whispered mostly to myself as I saw the back of the guy with the dark hair. He was walking out of the bar.

“Caelan, come on!” I said as I pulled him with me.

“But we didn’t even finish our drinks…” Caelan complained as I dragged him by the wrist.

I nearly skipped out onto the entrance of the bar, the dirt from outside being swept at me by the wind.

There was no one out here.

I walked out and only from very far away did I see one light beam moving at a fast speed away from us down the road. It was a motorcycle.

Great.

That was him.

Now he’s gone.

“Fuck,” I hushed out as I put my arms up and grabbed the back of my head in vexation. “Fuck, fuck, fuck…” I continued growling.

“Am I missing something here?” Caelan asked as he put his hands in his pockets.

Heat boiled up in my heart. If he had just cornered the guy when I asked him to, we could have found out if it was Mikey.

_Mikey would have been alive again._

But no. Now because Caelan didn’t want to be “awkward” we probably lost him forever!

“Hello?” Caelan questioned again.

“For once, would you just shut the fuck up?” I shouted. I kept my hands on the back of my head and started walking out into the desert.

“Hey!” Caelan called as he ran after me. “Leya, I said hey!”

“What, Caelan?!” I shouted as I stopped and put my arms out to the sides.

“What the hell is going on with you? You’ve been acting strange ever since you saw that guy in the bar. Who was he?” Caelan asked in a quieter voice.

“He was nobody, Caelan,” I answered with a shrug. “He’s nobody. Because you didn’t bother to get his name.”

Caelan sighed. “You know, I’m sorry I couldn’t do one little thing for you—“

“That’s right. You couldn’t do _one little thing_ for me, and now… now…” I started, feeling tears well up. These were tears of anger.

“Hey, are you okay?” Caelan said as he stepped closer towards me. “Are you drunk?”

“Coming from someone who had their first drink tonight? Just shut up,” I said as I crossed my arms. I turned around to continue walking. I could hear Caelan’s feet crunching in the dirt behind me.

“Well, at least we got some information from that Angel guy. So where are we going to next?”

I didn’t answer.

I didn’t want to answer.

I know Caelan means well, but I’m so pissed at him right now. Maybe I should have just done this whole thing by myself…

We didn’t talk until we got to the Firebird ten minutes later. I flung the key at Caelan. I really didn’t feel like driving tonight.

“So where are we going?” Caelan asked as he leaned his elbows on the top of the car.

I looked down and shook my head. “Just drive anywhere…” I got into the passenger seat of the Firebird and crossed my arms. I didn’t even bother to put my seatbelt on.

Caelan started the Firebird with a rumble and drove off toward the road.

“You know, I think we should call this whole thing quits,” he said as he turned left onto the road.

“What?” I hissed.

“We’re not ready to be out here. We’re pretty much walking blind and quite frankly, it’s kind of dangerous. I’m not sure how we’re going to find your sister from a few vague clues from some bartender that’s probably never seen her in his life. Maybe we should just go back to Sweetwater.”

“No!” I argued. “We’ve made it this far already! Angel sent us on a path! We have more stops on the way!” I looked back toward the back window and saw the light of The Black Widow from the right side of the road. If we’re leaving in the direction of Battery City, it should be on the left…

“Caelan, you’re going the wrong way. Turn around,” I urgently told him.

I looked over at him, and he stubbornly stared ahead.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” I growled. “Caelan, turn my fucking car around.”

He didn’t do it.

“Caelan!” I shouted. “Stop the fucking car and drop me off. I will jump out of this car right now if you don’t stop!”

Caelan gave me a cautious stare. “You wouldn’t…”

“Oh, I would…” I replied. I opened the car door, sending in the flood of heavy wind and dust. “Stop the car, Caelan!”

Caelan finally screeched to a halt on the side of the road.

“You’re not really gonna get out, are you?” he asked with a sigh.

“Yeah, I am,” I said as I picked up my cinch bag and my zip-up hoodie and stepped out. I slammed the door shut.

“Leya, come on!” Caelan yelled as he got out of the car, too.

I turned around, facing away from him as I crossed my arms.

“Just tell me what the hell’s got into you!” Caelan shouted at me.

“That was Mikey in there!” I burst out, feeling the tears well up again.

“What?” Caelan questioned, his voice going softer.

I took in a breath, turning around to face him. “That was Mikey in the bar. Mikey…is Kobra Kid’s real name.”

“Kobra Kid—you don’t mean to—“ Caelan’s brows creased together as he tried to work it out in his head.

“I mean—I don’t know for sure, but that guy in the bar, his face,” I started explaining. “He looked just like him! Except with dark, longer hair. I  mean, I only got one small, good look at him, but I swear—“

“Kobra Kid is dead, Leya,” Caelan told me with a grave tone. “All of the Fabulous Killjoys are dead. It couldn’t have been him.”

I felt a stab in my heart. “But you saw him,” I continued. “You must have recognized his face—“

Caelan put his head back with a sigh. “You don’t make eye contact with other guys in the bathroom… Look, I know you’re mad at me for not poking around in that guy’s business, but I’m a guy. And guy world is a lot different than girl world—especially concerning public bathroom etiquette!”

I started to say something before Caelan cut me off again.

“And another thing—if that was really Kobra Kid, wouldn’t he have recognized you? I mean, you haven’t changed much since you got to Sweetwater. Your hair’s just a few inches longer. If it was really him, he would have gone up to you himself, wouldn’t he?”

“I…Well…Maybe he…” I stuttered.

“It wasn’t him, Leya! Look, I hate to be cruel, but he’s gone. They’re all gone and they’re never coming back. You have to accept it.”

I looked down at my feet.

“Tell me what this is all really about,” Caelan said as he crossed his arms.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I mean… This was never about looking for your sister, was it?”

“Well, no, I mean I—“

“You’re looking for the Fabulous Killjoys, aren’t you? Why else would you ask about Dr. Death Defying?”

“He’s the only person who is able to get in and out of Battery City alive,” I started.

“Just stop lying already,” Caelan said as he looked down.

We were quiet for a few seconds.

“Look…” I started. “Yes, I want to find out what happened to the Fabulous Killjoys. But I didn’t expect to see any of them, let alone to see any of them _alive_! But I need to find out the truth. There’s too much we don’t know about what really happened to them! And that’s why I’m just trying to find Dr. Death Defying. I figured once that was all done, I could use Dr. Death’s help to search for my sister in Battery City.”

Caelan stared at me gravely. “I don’t know if I want to do this anymore.”

“Look…you don’t have to do this with me if you don’t want to, Caelan. I should have been honest with you from the beginning. I’m sorry,” I said as I looked down.

Caelan sighed. “Let’s just spend the night over here. We can figure it all out in the morning.”

I got back in the car, and Caelan drove on until we found a place far out in the desert. Hopefully at night no one would notice the black Firebird.

After Caelan stopped the car, he sighed, “I think we’re in over our heads. You know, maybe we should just go back—“

“You’re gonna give up after one day?” I asked with a biting tone.

Caelan sighed. “Look, let’s just talk about this later. Goodnight.” He turned over in the seat, facing away from me.

I sat in that passenger seat, contemplating what to do. Caelan’s not ready for this. He’s not committed. He’s an inexperienced fighter and a terrible shot. If anything, he’s holding me back instead of helping. And he wants to go home. I can tell.

Once I made sure that Caelan was sleeping soundly, I quickly gathered up my things and slowly opened the car door. After I made it onto the dirt, I gently pushed the door as close as it could be to being closed without making a noise. The Firebird was always loud when the doors slammed and I couldn’t risk Caelan waking up.

I turned around while slinging the cinch bag on my shoulder and started to walk away. If Caelan’s not in for the long haul, I’m gonna let him go home. But I’m not giving up here.

 

It was an hour’s walk back to The Black Widow. There were still a few people left inside, mostly the ones by the stage. I had my hoodie on with the hood concealing half of my face. I slipped through as quickly as I could, making my way to the stage and slipping out to the left to the women’s bathroom.

It was filthy, with red tile and bits of cigarette butts, toilet paper, and who knows what else all over the floor. I got into one of the two stalls there and leaned against the wall.

I know that was Mikey.

It couldn’t have been anyone else. Even the way he fought…it was totally him. I don’t know how to explain the hair change, but it’s been 4 months. Anything could have happened in between that time.

If I’m lucky, he’ll be here tomorrow night. And I will confirm it for myself if it’s the last thing I do.

Two hours later, The Black Widow became quiet. The only sound was that of the chairs being picked up and placed neatly at their tables. The place was being picked up. I hope they didn’t feel like cleaning out the bathrooms tonight—it’s not as if they look like they’re usually cleaned up, anyway…

I waited and listened while I stood in that stall, and I heard footsteps come close just outside the door. My hair stood on end.

The door opened, and a second later, the light turned off. It was pitch black now, so I edged out from the stall. Whoever had come in didn’t lock the door, much to my relief.

I got out of the bathroom and started making my way toward the bar. The only light visible was that of the EXIT sign next to the stage, but I’d be able to make it through the dark. I remember seeing a staircase just behind the bar’s counter. That probably led to the owner’s living quarters.

I made a bit of noise knocking into the counter, the walls of the staircase, and the creaks of the wood as I reached the upper level. There was a door at the top of the staircase, which I cautiously opened.

“Who the fuck goes there?” I heard a man yell as lasers shot in front of me.

I froze and quickly answered, “It’s Leya!”

“Leya?” the man answered as he turned on a light by flipping a switch on the wall. It was Angel, the bartender. The small space was lit up, and I could see that we were in a narrow hallway.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked as he lowered his blue ray gun.

“I was wondering if I could stay here. I’ve got cash, I’ll pay you, I just need a place to sleep,” I quickly explained as I took my cinch bag and opened it.

He rubbed his forehead. “I’m not taking your money,” he bitterly replied.

“But,” I stuttered, “I need a place to sleep. I’ve got nowhere else to go.”

“What happened to the boy that was with you? Where’s he?”

“We had a bit of a falling out,” I said as I looked toward my shoes. “Please, just… I’ll pay you everything I got.

Angel sighed. “I’m not taking your money. But you know what, kid? I like you. So tell you what; I’m gonna have you work for me tomorrow to pay off your time here. Come on,” he said as he waved his hand. He started walking back and I followed until he reached one door on the hallway and opened it. “You can sleep on the couch in the office. I’m afraid I don’t have extra blankets, so you can take mine.”

“It’s okay,” I protested.

“I insist,” Angel replied as he left to his own room. I was left alone in the office, a small 9x9 ft room with only a desk and a torn up red velvet couch. No windows. Angel came back with a woven blue blanket.

“Here you go, kid,” Angel told me. He shook his head. “Whatever you got goin’ on, I hope it sorts itself out quick.”

“That makes two of us,” I replied.

Angel left after saying goodnight and I went to sleep with the power glove on my arm.

 

The next day, he had me help him set up the bar and I worked as a waitress, giving out drinks to people, cleaning up after any spills on the tables. It was nice to feel useful for once as I worked 4 hours from the time of the bar’s opening. The best part was being kept busy and having an excuse to wait and see if that guy with the motorcycle helmet would return tonight.

“You’ve done enough. You can get off your shift now,” Angel told me as he rapped the counter.

“You sure?” I asked as I set down the empty glasses I was carrying. It was only 8:30 at night, I noted as I looked at the cracked clock above the bar.

“Yeah, I’m sure! You’ve already worked enough for staying in this stinkhole!” Angel told me with a frown. “And I ain’t no slave-drivin’ kind of boss, okay?”

“Okay,” I said with a smile growing on my face.

“Eh, what are ya looking at me with that goofy face for?” Angel said with squinted eyes. “Go on and beat it, kid. Go have fun.”

“Yes, sir,” I replied with a grin as took off the apron I had on. Angel took it from my hands and flung it on the back counter.

As I turned around to scope out the place, I saw a guy with a black leather jacket and red shirt come into the bar. And he was holding a helmet. I looked at his face. Sunken eyes, dark, thick eyebrows, a sharp looking nose, angular jaw—this had to be Mikey or a doppelganger.

He went straight to the pool tables, not even bothering to get a drink. He joined a game with three other guys. They must have been here yesterday, because they shrank back, looking wary of the skinny guy with the black leather jacket.

I could see him talking to the guys with his hands up in a friendly, disarming fashion. Soon the other guys lost their panic and started playing.

I think I know one way to get his attention without going up to him, if it really is Mikey…

I walked over to the old jukebox, the small records in there yellow and dusty from so much time that had passed. I started pressing the buttons on the side, flipping through all the records. They had to have something in here that would—Got it.

I pulled out 1C from my pocket and inserted it into the machine. I pressed F9 for the record. The first guitar notes of “Zero” by the Smashing Pumpkins started to play.

I looked over at the pool table where that guy was—but not too quickly—and indeed, his head tilted up at hearing the song and the left corner of his mouth turned up. After he made his shot and missed, he turned over to look in my direction and caught my gaze.

After two seconds, he turned back to his game of pool.

Did he recognize me or not?

My heart started to accelerate and I started to feel sweaty. There is that one little doubt in my mind: what if that’s NOT him?

My vision became blocked by some muscular guy with a blue mohawk. He was wearing a gray mesh vest over a yellow muscle shirt, with a brown scarf wrapped around his neck. He was looking down at me with a kind of smile.

“Hey there,” he told me.

“Hey…” I awkwardly replied while starting to walk away. Unfortunately, he followed.

“So you’re into Smashing Pumpkins?” he asked as he started walking by my side.

“Kind of,” I answered.

“Go away” is what I really wanted to say.

“That’s cool…Not that many girls out here know that kind of music.“

I shrugged and started to turn away.

"So you got a boyfriend?” the annoying guy continued as he put an arm around my shoulder.

“Yeah, he’s a really big guy,” I answered with a scowl while I took his arm off of me. He just put it around my waist this time.

“You work here, though, right?” He leaned in to whisper in my ear, “I could tip you real good if you do something for me…” I felt him reach his hand lower and grab at my ass.

“How about you fuck off?” I said as I pushed his chest with all my might to get him off of me.

“Come on, don’t be like that…” he said as he tried to grab me again.

I stepped forward and struck out a fist at this guy’s face. There was a loud smack as my knuckles met his nose and everyone in the near vicinity turned as the guy fell down and grabbed at his face.

I shook my hand out to the side, shaking the pain away as I turned around the other way. I saw Angel coming from behind the bar.

“Fucking bitch! It’s not like you’re worth much, anyway!” the pervert yelled at me as he held his bloody nose.

“You okay, Leya?” Angel said as he came forward, gently placing his hands on my shoulders.

“I’m fine, thanks,” I said with a smile.

“What the fuck, man? You’re just gonna let her get away with hitting me?” the pervert lashed out as he stood up.

“Quit acting like a fucking piece of shit and clean that blood up off my floor,” Angel coldly replied. He turned back to me. “Just stay up here with me for a while, Leya.”

I nodded as I started walking to the bar. I looked around me and noticed everyone staring at me—even the Mikey look-alike was staring at me. Then a round of applause started. I didn’t know what to say. I think I might have been blushing.

For the next hour, I sat there, had a drink, and just people watched. Mostly the Mikey look-alike. The mannerisms were the same: the hunched shoulders, the awkward way he stood, the way that his hands and fingers gracefully guided the pool stick, the intense concentration in his face as he did so. It was just like when Mikey stitched together Frank’s face. This had to be him…

“Leya!” someone shouted from across the room.

It was Caelan. I guess he didn’t go home like I thought he would…

I turned to look toward the entrance where he came in and saw him walking around the bar with a confident step. He looked a bit upset.

 “What the hell?! You just left me last night!” he said.

“I’m going through with my plan, Caelan,” I said in a lower voice as I got up, trying to not bring us too much attention.

“So you’re just ditching me, now? I was looking all over the freaking desert for you!” His hands were tightly clenched at his sides.

“You’re the one who said to call it quits, remember?” I shot back as I started walking over to one of the empty small tables along the wall. Caelan followed.

“I said we’d talk about it in the morning,” he bitterly told me.

I sat down and looked up at Caelan. “And what’s your opinion now?”

He sighed as he sat down, too. “I think we better go home. This is crazy. You going off on your own is crazy. What are you thinking doing this without a car?”

“Weren’t you the one who’d been dying to get out to the Zones? And for your information, I spent an entire 8 months in the Zones without a car, and I got along just fine. It could take longer to get to where I want to be. Maybe. But it’s not impossible. And that’s exactly the problem with you,” I said while laughing pessimistically. “If something seems too hard or uncomfortable for you, you won’t do it.”

Caelan was silent for a moment. And then he started, “Can you just tell me… why me? Why did you ask me to come with you?”

“Because you were the only one stupid enough to follow me.”

I heard Caelan inhale a sharp breath. “You don’t even sugar coat it, do you?”

“That’s not what I meant… I know that I’m being stupid going out here,” I continued as I put a palm to my chest indicating that this whole thing was my idea. “But you support me. And you went as far as to lie to your parents to do this for me. All because I asked you to.”

“Well, it seemed like it was really important to you,” Caelan told me as he looked over with this serious, dreamy look on his face. Oh no.

“Look, Caelan—“

“No, you look. I would follow you anywhere, alright? I don’t care how dangerous it is for me. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Don’t worry about me,” I protested as I started looking around me, checking if the Mikey look-alike was still playing pool. He was.

“I can’t help it. I… I like you too much, Leya,” Caelan told me with rosy cheeks.

No…

I took in a breath and made sure to look him in the eyes. “I know.”

“You know?” Caelan asked as his eyes widened.

“Yeah, since like day one. But Caelan, I don’t feel the same way. I’m sorry,” I continued as I put a palm on his hand that was resting on the table.

His face faded and his mouth turned into a frown. “So you knew and you didn’t say anything? You never kind of thought to say ‘Hey Caelan, I don’t like you and never will’?”

“There was no way to say something like that without hurting you,” I answered with a sigh.

“You were counting on the fact that I liked you so I’d follow you, right?” Caelan asked with a scoff. “God, I’m such a sap…”

“Hey, it’s not like that, ok?” I said with a frown. “You’re one of my best friends—”

“I don’t need to hear the friend-zone speech, I think I got it,” Caelan said as he took his hand from underneath mine. He pushed his seat back and stood up. “I think I’m gonna go home. There’s really no reason for me to be here, is there? And you were trying to tell me that by leaving last night…” He made a bitter laugh.

“Caelan, no…” I started as I also stood up.

“Leya, just save it. The only guys you care about are those 4 dead guys you obsess over. Well, good luck finding their ghosts.”

I became speechless at how insensitive Caelan was being. I mean, I know I hurt him, but he didn’t have to be a jerk about it.

“So that’s it?” I asked as I put out my arms.

“Yeah. That’s it,” Caelan said before he turned and walked away.

I started walking after him. “Caelan…”

“I’m done with this, Leya. I’m going back to Sweetwater. You can decide to come with me or stay here. So what’ll it be?” he asked as he glared at me.

I swallowed and replied, “I’m staying here.”

Caelan raised an eyebrow. “Okay, then.”

And then he was gone.


	4. Chapter 4

I put my hands through my hair, going over what just happened. I decided to walk back to that small table and sit.

Another live act was playing tonight. It was really just two guys up on stage. One had a weird little gadget that made beats and techno-style noises. The other had a small drum that he was beating on while singing through a microphone. The guy was off-key the entire time, and right now they were playing a slow beat. It was entertaining, to say the least.

I kept an eye on the Mikey look-alike every now and then, making sure he was there, waiting until I got a chance to approach him alone. I got that chance about twenty minutes later, when he decided to leave.

He picked up his helmet from the chairs behind the pool table next to the wall. I rushed over to the bar and walked around to get behind the counter.

“What are you doin’ here?” Angel asked as he started mixing a drink.

“I’m leaving, I said as I knelt down to get my hoodie and bag out of the cupboard.

“Already?” Angel questioned with what sounded like disappointment.

“Yeah. Thanks for everything, Angel,” I replied as I stood up, seeing the Mikey look-alike walking toward the entrance.

“You just take good care of yourself, alright? I worry about you,” Angel told me.

I turned to him and smiled. “I promise I will.”

I slung that cinch bag over my shoulder with the strings crossed diagonally over my chest and strode out from behind the bar, quickly making my way toward the entrance. I had to corner the Mikey look-alike tonight if I was going to get any answers.

I walked outside and the wind was a bit chilly, so I put on the black hoodie and stuffed the power glove, which was wrapped inside the sweater, into my left front jean pocket. I zipped the hoodie up to conceal it.

I couldn’t hear anything out here because of the wind. I stepped out onto the dirt, the neon lighted spider giving me some light, but I didn’t see a motorcycle anywhere, either. Maybe tonight he had parked it farther away, like I had parked my Firebird yesterday.

I started walking around to the side of The Black Widow, which was only lit by a small green lamp perched on the wall.

I heard dirt crunching behind me. I whipped around to see that blue-haired pervert from earlier.

“What are you doing out here?” I asked.

He smirked. “I should be asking you. What’s a defenseless chick like you doing out here by yourself? It’s not safe, you know.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call myself defenseless, in case you’ve forgotten what I did to you,” I replied.

The blue-haired jerk snickered. “You know, that was a lucky sucker punch you gave me. Hell, you even broke my nose.”

“You know, I think it looks better now, actually,” I quipped back while crossing my arms.

He started stomping up toward me quickly with a glare on his face.

I gulped. “Look, I don’t want any trouble.”

“You should have thought about that before you decided to make a fool of me back there,” the jerk grumbled as he came closer.

“So you want to get your ass pounded for real this time?” I asked with a bit of an edge. I don’t have time for this shit.

The guy chuckled. “I think you’ll find it a bit hard to pound all of our asses.” Two other Killjoys—from the looks of their clothes and guns strapped to their legs—came out from behind him.

I heard the dirt crunch behind me again, and turned around to see two more guys emerge from the shadows of the bar.

“So is this how you want to do things?” I scoffed, while feeling very nervous at the same time. “Too much of a coward to face me like a man on your own?”

“No one humiliates a member of our crew and gets away with it,” said one of the Killjoys behind the blue-haired asshole.

“And what are you gonna do, jump me for it? This asshole humiliates himself just by being himself,” I spat back as I edged toward the wall, where one small lamp was lit.

“I see I’m going to have to beat that big mouth of yours,” said the leader as he approached me.

I reached down into my hoodie, getting my power glove on quickly.

“Hey, she’s reaching for a gu—“ The pervert was cut off by the sound of an engine roaring this way. A bright light shone against all of us, and I raised my hand to shield my eyes.

“Ahh!”

The other four guys to my right and left got knocked down as I saw a motorcycle come through, sending sand everywhere as it drifted across the dirt. I edged closer to the wall with my arms tucked behind me as I turned the power glove on.

The guy with the blue Mohawk tried to run away toward the entrance of the bar, but the motorcycle went after him and the guy riding the bike hit the blue Mohawk-guy with his helmet. Hard. The big jerk went down like a sack of potatoes.

“Pick up your friend and leave. Now!” ordered the guy on the motorcycle to the four Killjoys moaning on the ground. They scrambled to their feet and started dragging their friend with them across the desert.

The guy on the motorcycle watched them leave and then he turned off the engine. He put down the parking brake and placed his helmet on one of the handlebars, then swung his right leg over so he was standing now. He started walking over toward me and I could see his face in the light. It was the Mikey look-alike.

I cleared my throat and started, “Thank you for doing that…”

He didn’t answer but kept walking toward me. As he came closer, I could see his face better, even if it was under a green-tinted light. His dark hair was resting a bit over his eyes again, so different from the blonde I was used to, but every other feature on his face was as I remembered.

This is Mikey, I’m sure of it.

“Don’t thank me just yet. The only reason I helped you out is so I could get some answers from you,” he told me as he stopped just a couple feet in front of me.

“Answers?” I questioned.

“Why are you following me?” he asked with a hard look in his dark eyes.

I looked up at him, not knowing what to say.

“Look, I don’t want to have to use force, but if I have to, I will. Why did you follow me out here? You did the same thing last night with that friend of yours. And you were staring at me all night in the bar…”

I hesitated, wondering how to even begin. “I had to make sure…”

“Make sure of what?” he quickly shot back.

“Make sure that you were Mikey,” I replied with a gulp. “It _is_ you, isn’t it, Mikey?” I asked with a crease in my eyebrows.

His eyebrows scrunched into a confused frown as he answered, “How do you know my name?”

“So…it _is_ you,” I gulped, finally getting the confirmation I needed for all this waiting and stalking.

His eyes got really wide just then. He went forward and roughly grabbed my arms at the side.

“Ow, what the—“ I started.

“How do you know my name?!” he questioned as he stared at my face.

I was just trying to take in the fact that Mikey was right in front of me. Even though he looked much different with dark hair falling over his eyes now. But…why was he acting like this? Like he didn’t even know who I was—

“Look, I don’t want to hurt you,” he hushed out. “But you better start talking. How do you know my name and why are you looking for me?” He had started squeezing my arms harder.

“Mikey, it’s me! It’s Leya!” I said while looking into his angry eyes.

In response, he decided to push me against the wall, not letting go of my arms.

“I don’t know anyone named Leya.”

I made a nervous laugh. “Mikey, it’s _me_. I mean, I know it’s been a few months, but have you seriously forgotten about me?”

“Look, I don’t know who you are or what you think you’re trying to do, but you’re not fooling me. You know my real name. Only those closest to me know my real name. So start explaining…”

“I already did!” I yelled back as I squirmed to break out of his hold. It was too strong.

Mikey just kept a glare on me as he released a grip on my left  arm to take out his ray gun and point it at my throat.

“Look, just explain everything,” he told me while he exhaled. “I don’t want to use this, but it seems like it might be the only way to get you to talk. Who are you working for?”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…” I groaned. “You don’t even remember me—”

Mikey pushed the barrel of the gun closer to my throat. I tried to shrink back against the wall.

“Okay, I guess talking’s not gonna work with you,” I croaked out. I twisted my right arm wearing the power glove and gripped Mikey’s left bare wrist—which had his tattoo as another confirmation it was him.

“Where the hell did you get that?” Mikey gasped as he looked at the power glove.

“I’m sorry, Mikey!” I said just before I reached up with my left hand to start pressing the combination on the glove.

“Wait, sto—“ Mikey was cut off when the electric current ran through his body. At first, his arms shuddered against me, including the ray gun he had pointed against me. And then he slumped forward, dropping the gun onto the ground and then falling onto me. I reached out and grabbed him before he could fall to the ground, too.

His dark head of hair was now resting against my shoulder. I looked down as I held him, wondering just what the fuck I’m supposed to do now. He’s unconscious, but he won’t be for long.

“Oh my god,” I said out loud to the world. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…”

It was only now that I realized how hard my heart was beating against my chest and how much I was shaking. I have to get out of here.

I adjusted my grip on Mikey, and I had to literally drag him down to rest against the wall. I snatched off the power glove, stuffing it into my pocket again, and I also picked up Mikey’s fallen ray gun. I looked back at him. He had his head hung over his chest as he was slumped against the wall. I cautiously crouched down and pushed his head back, smoothing the hair out of his face to get a better look.

There’s no doubt about it. It’s really him. Mikey’s alive.

But he doesn’t remember me. Why the hell doesn’t he remember me? What the fuck is going on? Maybe it’s not actually Mikey, but a robot clone? No, unlikely… A robot would have killed me already.

I was pacing about back and forth for a few seconds before I heard some people talking. It sounded like they were getting out of the bar. Which reminds me, I have to get out of here…

I looked back toward Mikey’s bike. It was a fancy silver sports bike, nothing less than I would expect from him. I could use that to get us out of here—except I don’t know how to fucking ride a motorcycle.

But there’s no way I can take him back to the bar. Angel would ask questions, and I’m not sure if it would be such a good thing for Mikey to wake up over there—not to mention, just trying to explain why I had an unconscious man with me…

No. I have to take him away from here and go far away. And then when he wakes up, I’ll have his gun and then maybe… Maybe…I can have a reasonable conversation with him.

I took in a deep breath and exhale. I turned to Mikey and knelt down, grabbing one of his arms to go around my shoulder. I grasped his side so I could half carry-half drag him over to his bike. I made sure no one was around as I moved in the dark. Once I reached the bike, I set Mikey down on the seat, taking care to do it gently so I didn’t hurt him or knock over the bike. Just dragging him about twenty feet already made me sweat.

Hmm… The only way I’m going to make this work without literally dragging him is if I place him on the bike like normal, with his feet on the foot rests. Damn his long legs.

I cautiously lifted Mikey up from behind by his torso, so he was sitting facing the right direction. Now I had to move his right leg over—awkward as hell—and then let him lean forward. I grabbed his gloved hands and dragged them over the handlebars, where his black helmet was still hanging. I knelt down and fixed his boot-covered feet on the foot rests of the bike. Fortunately, his awkward limbs stayed in place once I moved them.

I wiped the sweat off of my brow as I walked over to the front of the bike again. I picked up the helmet and then studied Mikey’s face again. I hope he doesn’t wake up soon. I’m sure he’s going to be pissed.

I walked back over and kicked up the parking stand, while hastily grabbing onto the bike. I skipped up to the front, next to Mikey’s side as I started pushing the bike. Oh, this is going to be fun…

 

I pushed the bike for nearly two hours until I found a place to rest. It was a place way out in the desert, where I found an abandoned shack. I don’t know why there’s so many of these out in the desert in the middle of nowhere, but it definitely works in our favor. It was no bigger than a tiny bathroom, and the walls were rotted through, providing very little shelter. But the weather was fine enough that we could stay right outside of it to rest. And there was enough starlight for me to keep an eye on Mikey.

I didn’t go to sleep, even though I was yawning from exhaustion. My arms and legs were sore from pushing that bike so far with Mikey on it. But I had to be awake when Mikey woke up, or else I might just wake up getting threatened again. I left him on the bike while I sat on the floor against the shack. I was counting all the stars in the sky I could see to keep myself busy.

…92… 93… 94…

“Mmm…what?” I could hear Mikey groaning on the bike.

I stood up quickly, taking a hold of the ray gun in my hands.

Mikey’s head slowly rose and he dragged his right hand to rub at his eyes. Then he dragged his other arm back as he sat up on the bike. He looked down in confusion, and then turned toward me.

“Uh!” he gasped as he saw me, nearly making himself fall off of the bike.

“Easy!” I exclaimed.

Mikey scrambled off of the bike, dropping it in the process. He started to hobble towards me, reaching for something in his jacket.

“I have your ray gun right here,” I explained as I started backing up.

“What are you—What do you want with me?” he questioned with a glare.

“Mikey…before you do anything, just calm down and listen to me,” I told him while putting my hands out in an appeasing manner.

“How the hell am I supposed to calm down while you have my gun, and you just electrocuted me with my own power glove? How did you get that, by the way? I thought it was lost,” Mikey sneered at me while he approached me.

“Okay…you have a valid point,” I muttered as I bent down and placed the gun and the power glove on the ground. “There.” I raised my hands up while keeping an eye on Mikey.

“Just tell me what you’re up to…” he groaned as he clenched his fists.

I took in a deep breath. “I’m Leya. We’re friends, Mikey. How is it… how can you not remember me?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “I’m sure if we were friends, I definitely would have known who you were…”

I growled out in frustration. “How the hell can you be talking like this?! Do you seriously have amnesia? Don’t you remember taking on Korse at Sweetwater or breaking out of the prison—or—how you fucking gave me that power glove!”

Mikey was quiet. He was looking at me with skepticism.

I scoffed. “You know, it’s typical. I spend about four months thinking about nothing but you guys everyday, and here you are—you forgot all about me—it’s like I never existed at all! You know, to finally have found you should have been a really happy moment…But no, here you are, with amnesia or something. And your hair’s all different, so I kept thinking maybe I was going crazy, but it’s really you! You’re alive… even though you’re like one step away from killing me.”

Mikey was silent for a few seconds. “I’m sorry. I don’t know who you are. Can you just tell me what you want with me?”

I laughed while shaking my head. “All I wanted was to find you, and I did.”

I looked up, stepping close to Mikey. He started to step back, so I grabbed at his wrists. “Mikey, you have to remember me!”

I looked up into his eyes. He averted his as he tried to pull away. “I…don’t. I’m sorry.”

I narrowed my eyes in frustration. “Look at me, damn it… Remember me!”

At this, Mikey tilted his head and narrowed his eyes at me. He looked like he was concentrating on a thought. He shook his arm from my grip and brought his hand up to his temple. He looked like he was in pain.

“Are-are you okay?” I asked.

“Can you say that again?” he finally asked me as he lost that tense expression on his face.

“Are you okay…?” I uncertainly repeated.

Mikey shook his head. “No, before that.”

I shifted my eyes and said, “Remember me…?”

Mikey had his eyes closed now and he seemed to be whispering something to himself. He looked back at me, keeping a long gaze.

“That was the last thing you said to us before…before we left…” he finally muttered.

“Mikey…do you—do you remember now?” I asked as I tried to meet his eyes.

He looked over at me with an inquisitive stare. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Yes! Yes, we are!” I answered.

Mikey looked down to the side. “I called you Princess Leya…” He looked back at me. “It’s so fuzzy but…I remember… You gave me a kiss on the cheek and it was like…like when Princess Leia gave Luke a good luck kiss… That was supposed to be the last time we saw each other for a while… and after we were already heading out, you yelled out ‘remember me’…”

Mikey lost his smile and muttered, “Why do I remember that? I don’t remember anything else about you.”

I lost my smile and started digesting this. Clearly Mikey has some form of amnesia, which just…really? REALLY? This is like soap opera shit.

I bit my lip. “Mikey…what happened to you?”

Mikey turned away from me, taking a gulp. “I wish I knew.”

“What do you mean?” I asked as I moved to look him in the eye.

Mikey turned to me and then studied me again. “Hey, if we were friends, why didn’t Ray tell me about you?”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “Ray? Ray’s alive?!”

Mikey blinked. “Yeah. You’re friends with Ray, too, then…” he made a frown. “How odd. He never mentioned you.”

Okay, this was getting to be a bit much for me. I started pacing back and forth while Mikey seemed to be pondering over something.

“So you have amnesia?” I asked.

Mikey looked up at me quickly. “I guess… I mean, I know who I am, I know—well, I _thought_ I knew everyone in my life—but according to Ray, I woke up in the hospital not remembering the last six months of my life. Some of it has been coming back, but in pieces.”

“Wait—when did this happen? When did it start?” I asked as I stopped pacing.

Mikey crossed his arms. “About four months ago. I just remember waking up in an operating room, not knowing where the fuck I was, but Frank and Ray got me out of there—ha, more like _broke_ me out of there. It was in Battery City, that’s why. And then…we escaped to the Zones.”

“So Frank’s alive, too… What about Gerard?” I asked.

Mikey hung his head low. “I don’t know where my brother is. None of us do.” He gave me a soft look, as if he was apologizing for what he just told me.

I cleared my throat. I put my hands in my sweater pockets as I looked down.

“They did something to me…” Mikey continued while swallowing. “I don’t know what the fuck they did, but they fucked with my head—just look at this.” Mikey bent down lower as he pushed the right section of his hair up.

I looked closely, and saw a piece of bare scalp—a scar—a few centimeters above his right ear. He let his hair go and it became covered again.

“Oh my god…” I had softly exclaimed.

“I’m pretty sure that’s why I have a fucking hole in my memory. I just don’t know what else they might have done to me…”

As I looked at Mikey’s face again, I could see his eyes starting to glisten. Oh no, don’t tell me he’s crying.

“Mikey, it’s okay. I mean, you just remembered me, so maybe one day you’ll get all your missing memories back,” I said while giving him a smile I hoped was comforting.

He looked down at me. “I wish I never forgot you in the first place. Or all the other shit that I’m missing. I don’t even remember what happened with Grace, or what happened with Gerard… That could have been the last time I ever saw my brother and I don’t fucking remember it!” At this point, Mikey’s face started creasing together as he started shedding tears.

Mikey slightly turned away, bringing up a hand to wipe his tears away. I cautiously stepped closer, taking my arms out of my pockets. Mikey looked down at me, but he didn’t move so I took this as initiative to reach under his arms and wrap my arms around his back.

“It’s going to be okay, Mikey,” I said in a soft voice as I started to feel a lump in my own throat. “You’re going to be okay, alright?” I started rubbing his back with my palm—I just wanted to do anything that would make him not cry anymore.

Mikey stood still, shuddering with tears as I hugged him. I’m not sure if my words helped at all, but at least he didn’t try to push me away.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“You don’t need to apologize for anything,” I replied as I looked up at him. “You know, the truth is I missed you so much,” I continued. “When I saw you in that bar last night, a part of me thought I had gone off the deep end. But the other part was just so glad to see you alive and, well–not dead, like everyone else thinks you are.“

At this, Mikey finally started to hug me back. “Thank you,” he whispered to me.

For what exactly, I don’t know. But I didn’t feel like ruining the moment to ask.

After another half-minute, I finally let go of him. “Are you good now?”  I asked.

“Yeah.” Mikey sniffed as he looked at me. “It’s a shame I forgot about you. You seem like a good friend. But there’s almost nothing of you in my memory. I’m sorry about threatening you earlier,” he said with a light chuckle.

“It’s okay. I’m sorry I shocked you with the power glove,” I replied. “I only used it because I really thought you were going to shoot me. You know, the first time we met, you weren’t nearly that hostile.” I chuckled.

“Yeah, sorry. I’m just a little…paranoid these days,” Mikey said in a low voice.

“Well, we don’t have to talk about any of that for now,” I said as I stuck my hands in my pockets again. “How are you feeling physically?”

“I feel fine,” he replied quietly as he stuck strands of his hair behind his right ear, getting it out of his eyes. It was still weird getting used to the dark hair. I’d have to ask him about that later.

“You sure?” I asked him.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” he replied with a gentle smile. “Are you tired?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” I answered, fighting the urge to yawn again.

Mikey raised an eyebrow at me.

I laughed at this. “Really, I’m fine!”

Mikey twitched the same eyebrow and said, “The bags under your eyes say otherwise.”

I smiled at him. He was the same old, worrywart, concerned Mikey I knew.

“I’m fine…” I said as I kept one of my eyebrows raised at him.

Mikey smiled as he crossed his arms. “Okay.”

After a few seconds of silence, he started, “So… What were you planning on doing after you hunted me down?”

I hesitated to speak. “Well…I didn’t exactly have a plan…”

Mikey giggled. “That’s fine. I bet you weren’t really expecting me to have amnesia.”

“I was considered insane to even expect you to be alive,” I replied with a wry tone.

Mikey smiled on one side of his mouth. “Yeah…we definitely have a lot to talk about. Well, do you want to come back with me? Ray and I have been staying out not too far from here.”

“Um…yes!” I exclaimed. Mikey’s eyes widened. “I mean…yes. Sorry. I mean, I was gonna say that you don’t even need to ask but then I remembered I’m still practically a stranger to you…”

“Don’t worry about it. If it makes you feel better, your enthusiasm makes it more believable that you really were a good friend of mine.”

“What do you mean, ‘more believable’? You’re still doubting me?” I asked with a loud sigh.

Mikey laughed. “I’m not, I’m not! It’s just…it’s funny, because you really do seem like you would be a friend of mine.”

“Well, it’s good to know you’re still just as weird as you were before the amnesia,” I snarkily replied as I put my hands on my hips.

Mikey laughed as he walked over to his fallen bike. As he picked the bike up, he called over to me, “Come on! Pick up the helmet.”

I first went down to pick up the ray gun and the power glove I had dropped to the ground. Then I walked over and knelt to the ground to pick up the black helmet. Mikey was already sitting on the motorcycle seat by the time I reached him.

“Get on. And put the helmet on,” he told me as he took the ray gun from my right hand.

I gave him a wide-eyed stare. This was going to be the first time I was on a motorcycle. Knowing the way Mikey drives, I’m a little scared about speeding through the desert.

“What? I’m not gonna bite,” Mikey said as he stared at me in amusement.

I swallowed as I went over and swung one leg to sit on the seat behind Mikey. It was a good thing he was so skinny and I was so petite, so we could both fit on the seat comfortably—well, relatively comfortably. I stuffed the power glove in my jeans next to my hip and placed the helmet on my head, tucking my long hair out of the way.

“You know, I don’t really need the helmet. I can barely breathe with it on, anyway,” I said as I started taking it off.

“You just need to put it on properly,” Mikey said as he turned around and started adjusting the helmet on my head, adjusting the straps under my throat. He lifted up the visor and asked, “All good now?”

“I guess,” I said in a muffled voice before putting down the visor again.

“Okay, hold onto me tight,” Mikey told me as he started revving up the bike. I wrapped my arms around his torso in a deathlike grip. I was kind of scared for my life.

“Are you shaking?” Mikey asked with a small giggle.

“Shut up! I’ve never been on a motorcycle before,” I lashed out.

Mikey laughed again. “I’ll get you there in one piece, I promise. Provided you don’t cut off my oxygen supply with how hard you’re squeezing me…”

I slackened my grip a bit. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. We’re taking off for real now, so hold on!”

At that, the bike took off darting through the dirt and I clung with all my strength to Mikey’s shirt.


	5. Chapter 5

I had never felt true terror before riding on Mikey’s motorcycle.

Okay, I’m kidding…but I seriously felt like I was going to die on that thing. With pretty much nothing except Mikey and two wheels separating me from the road at over 70 miles per hour, I was pretty much freaking out the whole time. Not to mention how cold the wind was, even though Mikey had a wind guard on the bike. And the occasional bumps along the road that nearly knocked me off the seat. I might have dug my nails into Mikey’s skin—that’s how desperately I was holding onto him.

He finally slowed down once we went into the dirt again, going on for about two miles along bumpy roads until we approached a small building that looked like a mobile home. Except it looked like it was half buried in the dirt, like it became one with the dirt—practically immobile now.

Hearing the sound of the engine shut off was the most beautiful sound in the world.

Mikey turned to me, his dark, long-ish hair completely tangled up, “You can let go of me now.”

“Oh, right!” I exclaimed as I released a hold of his shirt. The joints in my fingers felt sore and I had to shake my hands out to make them feel better.

Mikey laughed. “I think you might have bruised a couple of my ribs…”

I tried to get off the bike as gracefully as I could, which wasn’t too graceful, as I lifted one leg over and hobbled backwards on the other until I had both legs on the ground.

“Considering I almost fell off a few times, I call that an even trade,” I muttered as I started getting the helmet off of my head. My face was sweating and it was nice to be out in the fresh air for a change.

“Come on, Ray’s probably wondering why I took so long to get back,” Mikey told me as he took the helmet from my hands.

“So it’s just you and Ray here?” I asked as I started following after Mikey.

He nodded without turning back to me. “Yeah, just me and Ray.”

“What happened to Frank?” I asked.

It was quiet for a few seconds.

“Frank went his own way a long time ago,” was all Mikey said to me about that.

It didn’t make sense, but I’d probably get more answers soon.

Mikey reached into the right pocket of his black jeans and took out a key. He turned it into the only door to the small abode, and opened it slowly.

Mikey turned back and made a gesture with his hands for me to follow. From the outside, I could see a light illuminating the small dusty window next to the door.

“Hey, where have you been? It’s already one in the morning,” I could hear Ray’s soft voice concernedly scold.

Mikey went in ahead, smoothing out his hair without saying anything, and I followed, closing the door behind me. I could see the small space we were in. On one side of the door was a kitchen and a living room space to the right just beyond that. On the other side was open carpeted space, in which a mattress was tucked in the corner. That was the only furniture in this room besides a small table in between that space and the kitchen. A lamp was perched on top of what looked like two stacked toolboxes. The open space was divided by a skinny section of wall. I’m guessing if I rounded that partition, there was another room behind the wall directly in front of me.

I looked to my left to see Ray sitting on the mattress. Looking significantly different. He didn’t have the eye patch I had last seen him in, which was a good thing, and he wore a light blue t-shirt and jeans—but _his hair was cut short_. His dark curls were reduced to being just a few inches long from his scalp. Even though he still had a beard, he looked completely different.

Before I could even say anything to him, he stood up and pointed to me with a whole hand. “Leya!”

“Hi, Ray,” I replied with a sort of smile. It was all I could do to hide the shock from seeing his transformation.

“What are you—how did you—whoa!” Ray exclaimed as he continued to stare at me.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Leya?” Mikey asked Ray with a grave stare. He started walking up a bit closer to Ray, looking pissed off.

“Mikey…” Ray started.

“Ray, just fucking explain to me why you would tell me about everything else that went on, but you wouldn’t even tell me about a friend that we had out here in the Zones. I almost killed her tonight.”

Ray’s eyes widened. “What do you mean you almost killed her?!” He looked over at me. “How did you find us?”

Mikey sighed in frustration as he slammed the motorcycle helmet on the counter next to him. “Look, none of that matters right now! Why the hell didn’t you tell me about her? She’s a part of my memory that I lost! What else haven’t you been telling me?”

Ray nervously shifted eyes between Mikey and me. “Look, I think we all should just sit down first—“

“I’m fine right here,” Mikey cut in with a hard stare.

I didn’t know what to do, so I just kept my mouth shut. I wanted to know the truth myself.

“I didn’t tell you about Leya because it wasn’t the right time yet,” Ray started to slowly explain.

Mikey narrowed his eyes. “What the fuck do you mean not the right time? When was the right time gonna be?”

Ray sighed and looked down. “Leya was with us the week right before we headed out to Battery City to get Grace. I thought that might bring up some painful memories if I told you about her. And you were already processing so much in so little time, with what happened in Battery City. I didn’t want to overwhelm you.”

“It’s been four months, Ray! Don’t you think I’ve had enough time to process all that?” Mikey shot back. “And what the fuck does that have to do with keeping from me the fact that we had a friend out here?”

“I wasn’t important,” I cut in. “Isn’t that right, Ray? You didn’t want to confuse him with more insignificant memories so he could gather everything else?”

Ray looked over at me with apologetic eyes. “It’s not that, Leya! How can you think that? Of course you’re important!”

“Then if you were alive this whole time, why did you never come back to Sweetwater, like you promised?” I asked with a creased brow.

“Because we need everyone to believe the Fabulous Killjoys are dead!” Ray actually almost shouted. “That’s our only chance at living a peaceful life out here.”

I was confused. “What? So you don’t want anyone to know you’re alive—including me?”

“If there was a way we could have let you know without revealing ourselves, I would have already contacted you. I figured it was better this way, to just not have you involved. And that’s why I thought I would be sparing Mikey some stress by not telling him about you.”

“It doesn’t matter about the stress—I’m missing pieces of my life—Leya was a part of that. I just want my memories back, damn it!” Mikey was fuming.

“Leya was only with us for a week and a half. That’s the only period of time I didn’t tell you about,” Ray quietly said.

Mikey was quiet for a long time until he softly exclaimed, “What?” He looked back at me. “I thought you said we were good friends…”

I put my head back in vexation. “Oh, here we go…”

Ray quickly added, “Leya was only with us for little more than a week, but the things that happened while she was with us, it bonded us for life. She’s one of our best friends and she’s saved our lives more than once.” Ray looked at me with a warm smile.

I smiled back at Ray.

Mikey turned around, facing the wall. “This is just…this is just too much for me right now.”

I looked down. Everything’s going just great now.

“You see why I was waiting to tell you about her?” Ray asked.

Mikey didn’t answer.

“All you need to know is that Leya is a good, important friend. And I only didn’t tell you about her because it was just complicated with your…condition.”

“You should have just told me everything from the beginning. I’m sure Frank would have told me about her,” Mikey muttered as he stayed staring at the wall.

Ray looked down in silence looking a bit injured at that.

“What happened with Frank?” I quietly asked.

Ray looked over at me. “Frank was only with us a few more days after we escaped Battery City. He went back for Gerard.”

“So Gerard is alive?” I asked.

Ray looked down again, remaining quiet. Mikey moved from the wall and started walking past Ray, around the section of wall where I guessed would be the other bedroom section.

Ray sighed. “I think you should sit down. And you can put your stuff down.” He gestured for me to go over to the full-sized mattress that was in the corner of this small home.

I slung the cinch bag off of my shoulder, took out the power glove from my jeans and took off my sweater. It was too stuffy in here to wear the sweater. Then I went to sit down next to Ray.

“So what happened? Is Gerard…” I started.

Ray quickly shifted his eyes toward the direction Mikey left and then turned them back to me, whispering, “The last I saw of Gerard, we were fighting at SCARECROW headquarters, and then Korse shot a laser into his skull.”

My mouth dropped. “Korse? Korse is alive?!”

“I don’t know how it’s possible, either,” Ray replied. I thought that after you electrocuted him against the fence, he’d at least be in a coma. But there he was, the next night, looking as good as new.”

“That doesn’t make any sense…” I started. Fuck. Everything I did. Everything we sacrificed at Sweetwater, the people who died… it was all for nothing.

“When we got to the headquarters, we found Grace almost right away. But then there got to be too many agents. We were down on the street level, just inside the building next to the exit, and that’s when things started getting kind of crazy.”

I listened intently.

“There must have been about 20 agents against us, and we had to defend Grace, and everything was going smoothly—then something happened. I couldn’t believe it, but Gerard got cornered—by Korse out of all people. And he stuck his gun under Gerard’s chin and…well…” Ray looked incredibly pained as he said this, but he kept going on. “And then Mikey being Mikey went right after Korse, shot him in the leg, and then he got shot down by agents. He didn’t get back up, so for all we knew, he was dead. Frank and I knew that there was no way we could defend ourselves against all of the agents by ourselves and protect Grace at the same time, so we made our way to the exit. I ran out with Grace—and Frank, being the martyr he always is, locked himself in to fend off against the agents while I got Grace out to the Trans-Am. And that’s when I got shot.”

“You got shot?” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, I got blasted in the chest but I was wearing a chest plate that Axel gave me, so it only knocked me out for a while. Before I was shot, I saw Dr. Death’s van coming around, so thankfully, he was there in time to get Grace.”

It was quiet again. I decided to reach for my bag and took out the newspaper I had kept. “This was the paper where I found out about what happened. It has a picture of Gerard.” I gave it to Ray to read.

“Wow…” he exclaimed. “They manage to turn an execution into a public service.”

“There was nothing said about the rest of you—no specifics, anyway—and that’s why I had my doubts about whether you all were really dead or not,” I explained to Ray.

He looked back up to me. “So you went out of your way to look for us?”

“I had to know the truth about what happened. Since the story in the paper was obviously bullshit,” I replied with a straight face.

Ray softly chuckled. “I should have known you’d find a way to track us down…”

“Why do you want everyone to believe you’re dead?” I asked with a serious gaze. It doesn’t make any sense…

Ray started rubbing his hands together. “According to Frank, the agents had bigger plans for Gerard and Mikey. At least, he thinks so. Frank was shot, but he wasn’t dead, only playing dead. The agents were ordered to dispose of me and him, but they kept Gerard and Mikey’s bodies. Their idea of disposing of us was to take us to the furnace room in the building. But before anything could be done, Frank ambushed the agents assigned with the task and I woke up to the smell of burning flesh, just outside the furnace room.

“Frank explained to me about Gerard and Mikey, that they were being taken somewhere else in Battery City. He said that Mikey was going to be ‘repaired’ and we rushed out to the streets. Battery City was on heavy security after we had infiltrated it, so we had to take to the sewers for the night. The next day, we headed to Battery City General Hospital, figuring that was the place Mikey was going to be “repaired” at. We waited until nightfall to break in, and it took us about an hour to find out where Mikey was.

“Eventually, we found him in an operating room, freshly stitched up with his head shaved on one side and the sutures in his scalp. So many wires were pinned inside of him. We woke him up, and he was so disoriented, freaking out, almost having a heart attack—it was really hard to see him like that. We were glad he was alive, though. We didn’t know how serious the memory loss was until later.

“Anyway, Frank and I fought our way out of the hospital with Mikey. Frank wanted to stay behind and see if Gerard was in the hospital too, but too many agents were coming again. Our only option for survival was to get out of there right away, so we escaped on foot out of Battery City. Word had already gotten out that we were ‘dead’, so we figured we should lie low.”

“So how did you get out here?” I asked.

“Dr. Death had been patrolling the nearby zone and found us, just when we were about ready to die from starvation and heat exhaustion. He took us all in, helped stitch Frank up, and gave us a place to stay for a bit.”

“So why didn’t he ever make an announcement that you guys were alive?”

“It’s because we told him not to,” Ray told me. “We were still unsure of what we were going to do at that point… And that’s also when we found out that Mikey had no recollection of the last six months from the point that he woke up in the hospital. It wasn’t exactly a good time for the world to come looking for us.”

“Still…even a few weeks after… There was no news…nothing. Why?” I persisted.

“If anyone knew that the Fabulous Killjoys were alive, and SCARECROW got wind of that, it would be just like before—we would be hunted. And Frank would have an even harder time getting to wherever he’s headed by himself. If everyone thinks we’re dead, he has a better chance of getting past SCARECROW officials. We all do.”

“Then why didn’t Dr. Death ever make an announcement that you were dead?” I asked with narrowed eyes.

Ray looked down at his hands. “There’s the chance that we  might return as the Fabulous Killjoys one day… We’re not pretending to be dead. We just want everyone to _think_ we’re dead.”

I was quiet for a while. So they were doing all this to protect themselves, which I really couldn’t argue against.

“I still wish you guys would have contacted me,” I said as I looked down. “Everyone does think you’re dead, so don’t worry about that. But there’s also less hope now. Less people fight. No one thinks you’re heroes anymore. I hate to say it, but the world is a bit darker without the Fabulous Killjoys.”

“It was the only way we could live a somewhat normal life,” Ray replied.

“Normal? With new hairstyles to disguise your identities?” I asked as I looked over at Ray. He put a hand up to touch his hair.

“You noticed…” he remarked.

“Only a blind person wouldn’t notice your new do, Ray,” I said with a sarcastic laugh.

He looked down sheepishly. “Well, we have to keep ourselves from being recognized. That’s why Mikey dyed his hair and grew it out.”

I snorted. “Yeah, thanks for that, by the way. I almost thought I was going crazy the first time I saw him like this. And I wasn’t the only one who thought I was crazy.”

“How did you find Mikey, anyway?” Ray asked.

“It just happened,” I answered. “I went to the Black Widow to ask about Dr. Death—I figured he would know what happened to you guys—and then out of nowhere, there was Mikey beating the shit out of some goons.”

“Hmm,” was all Ray said.

“What was Mikey doing there, anyway?” I questioned.

“The same thing you were.” I looked up quickly. Mikey was standing at the corner of the wall. He had his jacket off now and his arms were crossed across a dark red t-shirt.

“How long have you been listening?” Ray asked.

“Long enough,” Mikey answered with an exhale.

“The bartender said you’d been there all week, like you were waiting for someone or something,” I directed at Mikey.

He scoffed, “Trust a bartender like that to keep his mouth shut about other people’s business…”

“Who or what were you waiting for?” I questioned.

“Dr. D and his crew are the only ones who know that we’re still alive,” Mikey said as he leaned against the wall. “If anyone knows where Frank is, it’s him. I was waiting for someone with real info to come into that bar. And then you showed up stalking me, and my priorities changed.

“So you’re going to look for Frank? Why now?” I asked.

“I imagine it’s the same reason you took so long to start looking for us,” Mikey replied as his eyebrows twitched. “It takes a while to gather information and a plan. Especially when we’re supposed to be keeping a low profile.”

I looked down, staying quiet.

“You’re going to go after him, too, right?” Mikey asked while keeping a stare on me.

I breathed out a laugh. “I wasn’t even sure any of you were alive. I was just looking for answers about what happened to you. I have no idea how to go about finding Frank!”

“Would that really stop you?” Mikey questioned.

“No, I guess not.”

“You’re both insane if you think you’re going to find Frank now,” Ray said as he put his palms on the mattress. “Even if you find him, there’s no way he’s coming back until he finds Gerard.”

“So we’ll look for Gerard with him,” Mikey replied as he stood up straight.

Ray sighed.

“Do you believe Gerard is really dead?” I asked Ray.

“I don’t know… I mean, I saw him get shot.” He looked back at the newspaper. “Then again… Gerard got shot from under his chin, but in this picture, he looks untouched. He looks like he’s dead, but there’s no hole, no scar…”

I looked back at the paper. Just as Ray said, there were no marks, no visible signs that Gerard had been shot.

“Maybe Frank was actually onto something…” Ray muttered. Mikey quickly walked over to where we were sitting and snatched the paper up, studying it with a crease in his brow.

“Where exactly did Frank go anyway? All Mikey told me is that he ‘went his own way’, whatever that means,” I directed at Ray.

Ray sighed. “We got into an argument a few days after we rescued Mikey. Mikey was still in pretty bad shape, remembering even less than he does now, not to mention, he was recovering from a laser wound in his left shoulder. Frank was also hurt, but he wanted to rush after Gerard right that second. I told him that we were in no condition to be going after Gerard, especially when we had no idea where he was or if he was even alive. But you know how stubborn Frank is… Long story short, he stole one of Dr. D’s motorcycles to go looking for Gerard on his own. We haven’t seen or heard of him since that day.”

“Frank was the only one to see what happened after we got shot down, Ray. Maybe he saw more than he let on…” Mikey muttered as he put down the paper.

The three of us sat and stayed quiet for a while. I’m sure we were all trying to work out what this meant and what we were supposed to do next.

“It’s late. I think we should get some rest and figure this out tomorrow,” Ray said as he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees.

“Maybe you’re right,” Mikey replied. “Besides, you’ve still got more explaining to do.”

Ray breathed in heavily. “Look man, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Leya. Would it have made anything easier for you to know that there was a friend of ours out there? We wouldn’t have been able to go see her or contact her ourselves, anyway.”

“Yeah, but I would have known where the fuck my power glove actually went,” Mikey muttered as he turned away and left to the other room.

I looked down at the mentioned power glove. I can’t imagine how hard this is for Mikey right now.

Ray was looking down at his knees now.

I cleared my throat. “Well, I hope it’s alright if I stay here. I don’t exactly have anywhere else to go,” I chuckled.

Ray looked up at me quickly. “Of course it is! Here, you can use my bed.” He stood up and started cleaning up. There were random gadgets on the foot of the bed that he scooped up in his hands and threw on the floor.

“Are you sure, Ray? Where are you going to sleep?” I asked.

“I can take a blanket. This carpet’s pretty soft,” He said as he took a gray cotton blanket, and sat on the brown carpet. It didn’t look that nice to lie on. But I wasn’t sure if I should argue or not. With these guys and hospitality, I never really won.

“Thank you, Ray,” I said as I started taking off my boots.

“You’re welcome,” Ray replied. “It’s good seeing you again, Leya.”

“You too,” I answered with a smile.


	6. Chapter 6

“Ahhhh!”

I woke up to the sound of a scream and then I heard something thud on the ground.

I sat up quickly and started rubbing my eyes. The mattress squeaked as I placed my palm on the edge.

“You should go back to sleep,” I heard Ray whisper in the dark from across the small room.

“What was that?” I whispered back.

“It’s Mikey. He has these nightmares… I think it’s about what happened that night in Battery City, but he never likes to talk about it. He usually wakes up in the middle of the night screaming like that.”

“That’s terrible,” I whispered. “Should we check on him?”

“No, he’ll be alright. After the first few weeks of it, I think he got frustrated with me checking on him, so I just stopped.”

I stayed sitting up, feeling concerned. It didn’t feel right that Mikey was suffering just several feet from us. I could hear him settling back into his bed.

“Do you think he’s ever going to remember me for real, Ray?” I asked.

“I’m sure he will,” Ray answered. “And even if he doesn’t, he’ll get to know you all over again, and then it’ll be like before. Friendships are bonds between people, not memories.” 

I made a small smile that Ray wouldn’t be able to see in the dark. “Thanks, Ray.”

“Anytime. Get some sleep,” he replied with a yawn.

I laid back down and went to sleep for a few more hours.

I woke up to the sound of Ray and Mikey talking. They must have been outside because I could only slightly hear them. I picked my head up from the pillow it was on, moving my tangled dark hair out of my face. I tried to edge closer to the wall to hear better.

“…You didn’t think it was important to let me know that Korse was supposed to be dead before we faced him in Battery City?!” I heard Mikey exclaim.

“Well…no…” Ray replied.

“So Leya electrocuted him, his flunkies got him out: why was he alive and well when we fought him at SCARECROW headquarters?”

“You know, that’s something I’ve been trying to figure out by myself for a long time.”

“No one could survive the exposure to that high of voltage…” Mikey mused.

“But Leya did.”

“I thought you said she’s the one who electrocuted Korse?” Mikey asked.

“None of us saw it happen, only you. But you told us that the electrical current passed from Korse to her, which stopped her heart. So you ended up jumpstarting her heart back to life. With the power glove.”

“The power glove? That’s crazy, how could that—unless I set it to an alternate charge—Wait. I fucking did that?”

“Well, it worked!” Ray said in a cheerful voice. “She was healthy and walking about just several hours later. Speaking of which, you let her keep the power glove. I only told you it was lost because then I would have had to explain all of this.”

“Wait a minute…the current could only be passed through Korse to Leya if she was touching metal,” Mikey interjected.

“The human body does have natural electricity running through it…” Ray suggested.

“Not enough to send the full voltage of an electric fence to another person without metal. If only I could remember what I saw exactly… Does Leya remember?”

“Well, when she woke up, she couldn’t remember it. Go figure,” Ray said with a weak chuckle.

“Yeah, that seems to be happening a lot lately,” Mikey muttered.

“Why is this detail so important to you, anyway?” Ray asked.

“Because maybe Korse isn’t exactly human…” Mikey quietly said.

Ray laughed. “You’re not serious, are you?”

“You know what, forget it…” Mikey muttered. I heard him start walking away. I think he was coming back inside, so I quickly dropped back down to the mattress, pretending to be asleep.

I heard the door open and creak while I kept my eyes closed. I heard Mikey’s footsteps as he walked on the linoleum of the kitchen section. Then Ray came inside, making the door rap against the frame.

“You’re gonna wake her up,” Mikey whispered to Ray.

“Sorry,” Ray whispered back.

I slowly opened my eyes to see Mikey and Ray standing in the kitchen. It was odd because they looked like completely different people now. Ray’s hair was like a small, dark afro, and Mikey’s longish dark hair was parted to the sides, the longer side covering the right side of his head. He had these bangs tucked behind his ears, even though the right side still hung over his right eye.

Mikey was busy making some kind of drink. They actually had a sink and faucet in here, and he had a glass of water, in which he was stirring around some kind of powder.

Ray had turned to walk over my way. “Oh, you’re awake?” he asked as he saw me.

I sat up on the bed, replying, “Yeah. Good morning.” It was already bright inside, with golden light coming through the window.

“How did you sleep?” Mikey asked as he looked at me from the side, still fixing up whatever he was about to drink.

I just remembered how he had woken up screaming in the middle of the night. And he was asking _me_ how _I_ slept?

“Good,” I replied.

It was quiet. And awkward. This usually never happened between me and Mikey.

“Are you hungry at all?” Ray asked as he went and sat at the edge of the mattress. He looked a bit tired still. I’m guessing the full conversation he and Mikey had was a little heavy.

“I’m good for now,” I answered as I started yawning and stretching my arms. “What time is it?”

Ray looked down at a watch that was on his left wrist. “Almost 10:30.”

I sat there, smoothing my tangled hair out. I had no idea where to go now or what to do. If we wanted to go looking for Frank, we’d have to continue looking for Dr. Death Defying.

“So Ray told me all about how we met you,” Mikey remarked as he leaned against the kitchen counter, looking over at me.

“Yeah?” I asked in response.

“Yeah. And about how you helped break us out of prison, fixed the Trans-Am, fought with us against Dracs, and then sacrificed yourself to save us from Korse. You’re kind of a badass, huh?” Mikey said this last remark with a small laugh.

I looked down. “I guess…”

“Well, I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, I saw how you handled yourself in the bar with that jerk,” Mikey told me with a smile.

I smiled from one corner of my mouth and shrugged.

“You’re being so quiet this morning. You sure you okay?” Ray asked as he looked toward me, his small curls shaking as he did so.

Wow, Ray…way to bring attention to my awkwardness.

“I’m fine, really,” I replied with a forced smile. “I guess I’m still waking up…”

I saw Mikey give me a concerned stare. The dark hair really brought out the green in his eyes, now that I could see it in the daylight.

I had brought my hands together with my fingers laced as I started, “Is it alright if I go out for some fresh air?”

Mikey and Ray shifted glances between each other and me.

“Yeah, sure,” Ray answered.

I bent down and slipped on the boots that were at the foot of the mattress. As I got up to get out, I passed Mikey. He didn’t take his eyes off me, studying me like I wasn’t even human.

I tried to ignore it as I pushed the door open, walking out into the bright, sunny world. There was practically nothing but dirt and scrub for miles around, but there were a few boulders at one edge of the mobile home. I marched over there and sat down in somewhat of a shaded area.

Sure, it was amazing to find Ray and Mikey alive, but I never anticipated something like this. Mikey having amnesia and not knowing who I am, that is. I can’t handle it. In a way, it was like I still lost my friend. To hear him talking like that about me and looking at me like I was a stranger, it hurt too much.

I hugged my knees together as I started to let tears escape my eyes. I was shuddering despite my will. Maybe it was childish of me to cry about this, but I don’t know how else to deal with it.

Mikey doesn’t remember any of the conversations we had, any of the one-on-one moments we had together, not even the other moments that were shared with the rest of the guys. Thinking back to it now, there were only so many things about me that Ray could have relayed to Mikey. So many of our moments together were alone, from the first night keeping watch, to his little teasing, to arguing and then making up when the Trans-Am was broken, to him helping me with every scrape and bruise I had, to that night we stayed up talking and listening to music, to him teaching me how to drive stick-shift…

What if he never remembers any of that? Is he even really the same person without those 6 months of memory he lost?

A few minutes later, Ray came outside, and I was still sitting on the dusty boulder with my arms around my knees.

“Hey, how are you doing out here?” Ray asked. I could just tell by the sound of his voice that he was worried about me.

“Fine, just getting some fresh air,” I said as I turned my eyes downward, hoping that the tearstains already dried.

“Yeah, you said that already,” Ray replied. He went over and sat by me. “What’s wrong?”

I looked up nervously. He could see right through me. “Is it that obvious to you guys?”

“Don’t worry. Mikey’s oblivious. But I’ve seen that look on your face before, that you just had in there. And you do have this pattern of leaving to be by yourself to cope with things,” Ray explained as he looked over at me.

I felt tears start coming out again. But this time, it was because I realized that even though I lost Mikey, I still had Ray. He still remembered and knew me so well.

I reached over and gave Ray a strong hug. He looked surprised but then embraced me back.

“I missed you so much, Ray!” I sobbed as I hugged him. He rubbed my back, probably to comfort me since I was crying so much.

“I missed you, too, Leya,” he replied. “Are you okay, though?” He pulled away to look me in the face.

I laughed as I wiped my tears away. “I’m fine. I guess…I’m just trying to process all of this. You know, seeing you and Mikey. And how Mikey has no idea who I am anymore.”

Ray gave me a pitiful look with his dark eyebrows turned up. “It’s only for now. From what he told me, just you yelling ‘remember me’ got him to remember one memory of you. Maybe as you spend more time with him, he’ll start remembering more.”

“Maybe,” I answered as I put my head down. “If he doesn’t keep treating and looking at me like I’m a fucking stranger.”

Ray patted my back with his hand. “Just give it some time.”

I smiled. “How are you always so nice and reasonable, Ray? I don’t even know how you’ve been able to carry on like this for so long and not lose your cool.”

“Hey, I lose my cool sometimes. But I just have to keep going. Besides, being surrounded by a bunch of lunatics all the time kind of forces me to be the reasonable one,” he chuckled.

I smiled back.

“Well, want to go back inside? It’s gonna start getting real hot soon,” Ray said as he stood up, dusting the dirt off of his jeans.

I got up, too, and followed Ray back inside the house (if you could really call it a house).

When we came back in, Mikey was sitting down on a wooden chair with a glass in his hands between his knees. I noticed his feet were poking from the bottom of his black jeans. That was the first time I saw his bare feet. I don’t know why that was so weird to me.

As soon as he saw me, he stood up quickly. “Are you hungry?”

“Um… well…” I started, startled at the abruptness.

“’Cause I am,” he said with his mouth curving up to the right. “And Ray’s a pretty good cook—well, with what we have here. So if you want, we can cook breakfast right now.”

“Um, sure. I can definitely eat right now,” I replied. At least Mikey was trying to be friendly. I had to give him that much credit.

Ray came walking into the kitchen area. “Coming through!” It was such a tiny space between these two walls that only two people could fit in the pathway at the same time.

“What are you going to cook up for us, Ray?” I asked as I leaned against one wall.

“Just wait and see…” he answered as he started going through tiny cupboards that were above the stove. There were ringlets of electric burners on the old white stove.

“When’s the last time you ate?” Mikey asked as he turned to me.

“Um…yesterday afternoon,” I answered. “What about you? You didn’t eat or drink anything at the Black Widow.”

Mikey breathed out a laugh. “I forgot. You were stalking me yesterday.”

You forgot? You were only threatening to shoot me for it several hours ago…

I just looked away briefly and answered, “Well, I had to make sure it was you. You know, you were a blonde the last time I saw you.”

Mikey nodded. “Yeah, that would make things a bit confusing.”

We got quiet again. The only sound in the house was Ray setting a pan and utensils on the stove.

“So…” Mikey began as he sat down, “When you played Smashing Pumpkins on the jukebox. Was that intentional?”

I cracked a smirk. “So you put that together, eh?”

“Well, they’re only like my favorite band. And it’s not really a coincidence that the same person stalking me would put a Pumpkins song on the jukebox…” Mikey told me with a raised eyebrow.

“It was either that or ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’. I figured ‘Zero’ fit the context better, you know, being a bar full of muscleheads,” I laughed.

Mikey laughed. “So you know about the music I like…”

“I’m sorry,” I started. “It has to be weird for you, a stranger knowing all these things about you.”

“You’re not a stranger,” Mikey answered while giving me a serious look.

We were quiet again.

I started, “Well, um, I know about your music taste because when we were all together, we found a bunch of CD’s in this checkpoint place and one night you and I couldn’t sleep. So you had this brilliant idea for us to stay up until like 4am listening to all the music you liked. And you kind of gave commentary on each track. And you wouldn’t shut up about the Smashing Pumpkins and the Smiths,” I said with a giggle as I remembered that night.

Mikey looked at me with a gentle smile.

“And you scared us all to death that morning because we wondered if you guys had disappeared because of Dracs or something—but you two were just asleep in the office,” Ray added with a laugh.

Mikey was looking down with a smile. “Sounds like it was fun.”

I gave a smile at him from one corner of my mouth. “It was.”

Whatever Ray was cooking was starting to sizzle. It smelled good.

“What is that, Ray?” I asked as I leaned over to take a peek.

He looked back over his shoulder. “Just wait…”

“Fine,” I answered as I leaned my head down to rest on my hand.

Mikey laughed at me.

In just a few minutes, the three of us sat in the living room space since there was a small coffee table in between a few chairs—the only place we’d all fit. Ray got a few mismatched plastic plates and served us what looked like fried beans and something green sticking out. But it smelled good.

“What is it?” I asked as Ray took a seat next to me in a beige ottoman chair.

“Try it first,” he told me with a grin.

I did so, and while it did in fact taste like beans, it also tasted a bit sweet. I looked at Mikey and Ray, who were both digging in to their plates.

“Not bad, Ray… Since when did you learn how to cook?” I asked.

“Since it became the only option for food,” he answered with a chuckle. “You won’t believe what the green stuff is…”

“Come on, Ray! Enough with the secrecy!” I exclaimed.

“It’s cactus leaves,” he announced with a smug grin.

My eyes widened. “Wow, you really took that advice from Sweetwater, didn’t you? But it does actually taste pretty good.”

After we finished eating, I figured it was time to get back to reality.

“So…did you guys come up with any plans of what you’re going to do, if we’re going to go out and look for Frank?” I asked while patiently waiting for an answer from either Mikey or Ray.

They looked at each other and then Ray started, “We haven’t really come up with anything yet.”

Mikey interjected, “But we can go back to the Black Widow—ask if anyone knows—“

“I don’t think you guys are ready to start going after Frank,” Ray interrupted.

“Why not?” Mikey asked as he shot a glare toward Ray.

Ray scratched at the bottom of his jaw. “It’s been 4 months and we’ve heard nothing about Frank. You have no idea where he could be, you have no leads on him, and considering he was headed toward Battery City, you’re going to have to deal with a heavy defense.”

“So what are you saying? We just stay here the rest of our lives and forget about Frank?” Mikey retorted.

“I’m just saying, if you’re really planning on finding Frank, you better have a good plan. Or else you’re going to end up dead,” Ray replied as he stared over at Mikey.

Mikey quickly looked over at me. “Well, what do you think? You’re the one that was going to go look for us all over the Zones.”

I met eyes with Mikey, feeling flustered. He was looking at me to support his side of the argument. To be honest, I’m not even sure that what I was planning was a good idea. “If we’re right, and Dr. Death does know something about Frank, it might be in our best interest to go find him. The bartender at the Black Widow gave me a tip on where this guy called Show Pony is, who’s supposed to be a friend of Dr. Death’s.”

“Show Pony? You know where he is?” Mikey asked eagerly.

“I have a place marked on my map, where he was seen a few days ago,” I replied with a shrug.

Mikey’s face brightened up. “Great! We can go find him, ask questions about Dr. D or maybe even Frank and then—“

“Hold on,” Ray interjected.

“What, Ray?” Mikey said as he tilted his head back in a frustrated way.

“You’re chasing after rumors,” Ray said as he looked down with dark eyes.

“It’s all we have to go by—the only chance we have of finding Frank…” Mikey argued as he stared at Ray. I don’t know if it was because of the dark hair, but I had never seen him look this angry—well, he was this angry at me last night, but still.

Ray stood up with his fists clenched. “Look, we’re all each other has right now! We already lost Gerard and Frank. I don’t want to lose you, too!”

Mikey was quiet as he looked down at his hands that were gathered at his knees.

I broke the silence, saying, “Then why don’t you come with us, Ray? We can look for Frank together, the three of us!”

Ray looked over at me with a sigh. “I don’t want to go running around the desert chasing after an unreliable source of information. We’re not even prepared to go on a trip like that right now!”

Mikey replied, “We can prepare quickly enough—“

“Mikey, we don’t even have enough water to last us more than one day right now!” Ray lashed out. “We need more time to prepare.”

“Fine…” Mikey said as he stood up and walked past us. I heard the door slam not too long after.

I felt awkward now, stuck with Ray in this silence.

“I’m not trying to be the bad guy,” Ray blurted out as he looked up at me. “I’m just trying to make sure we all stay alive.”

“I know, Ray,” I answered. “But right now, the only thing that we really have to live for—that Mikey has to live for—is finding Frank. Could you really live with yourself by not going after him?” I looked toward Ray with an imploring expression.

Ray sighed. “That’s not fair. Of course I feel bad about not finding Frank right away, but survival comes first. And for all we know, Frank’s dead.”

“Then shouldn’t we make it a point to know?” I questioned as I stood up.

I walked toward the front door and walked out as well. I need to make sure Mikey didn’t do anything crazy. I opened the creaking door to see him pacing around next to his bike.

“Mikey, don’t tell me you’re going to leave!” I called out as I started speed-walking up to him.

He looked up at me, surprised, so it seems. “I—I wasn’t…” he started explaining in a low voice.

“Good…” I started. “I think the last thing we need right now is for us to be split up. That would just make things worse.”

“I don’t know what the fuck is up with Ray…” Mikey muttered as he put his hands on his hips as he looked down. “…Why he’s so reluctant to go looking for Frank—who’s practically our brother!”

“I think Ray just wants to make sure you’re safe. After what you guys have already sacrificed just to be able to live out here, going after Frank would kind of be throwing that away,” I told Mikey as I looked out toward the desert.

Mikey came closer to me. “It’s worth throwing all this away to find Frank. There’s no question about that.”

I was about to reply when I heard a door creak behind me. Mikey looked up and past me with widened eyes. I spun around to see Ray walking toward us.

“I’ve come to a decision…” Ray started as he had his hands in his front jean pockets.

“Yeah, what’s that?” Mikey questioned while he squinted in the bright sunlight.

“We’ll go look for Frank— _after_ we get water and prepare for the trip. We can leave tomorrow.” Ray gave Mikey a hard stare.

“Alright, then…” Mikey answered with a nod.

Ray nodded back. “So let’s get ready to go!”


	7. Chapter 7

Ray had red cable cords in his hands as he reached under the sink for something.

“You almost ready, Mikey?” he called out as he emerged from under the sink with a plastic cylindrical jug that must have been big enough to hold at least 5 gallons of water.

“Yeah, Ray!” Mikey called as he emerged from his room with aviator sunglasses over his eyes and the black leather jacket on again. In this heat?

Ray informed me that he and Mikey got their water supply from a well that was about twenty miles away from here. Supposedly, an underground river ran through this part of the desert, and the well had plenty of water to keep supplying them for a few weeks at a time.

Ray and Mikey needed to have one person lowered into the well with a cable and the container while the other person pulled. That’s why both of them needed to go. And fortunately for Ray, he also had a bike of his own.

The guys were just about to walk out the door when I stood up to tag along.

“I’m going with you,” I said while following out the door.

“No, you don’t have to come with us,” Mikey said, obviously trying to shoo me away.

“I want to,” I argued as I kept following him in the dirt.

“I think you’ll find it better if you just stay here. It gets kind of boring out there,” Ray added.

“Like I won’t be bored here all by myself? I’m going,” I said with my arms crossed.

“Are you always this difficult?” Mikey asked with a frown on his lips.

It was like fucking déjà vu to hear him say that. I shook it off and answered with a chuckle, “Yeah. I am.”

Ray was laughing.

“What are you laughing at, Ray?” Mikey asked with a scowl.

Ray shook his head. “Just…some things never change…”

Mikey looked confused. “Okay, but you’re riding with Ray this time. He has a side car, so you don’t need to tear off anyone’s flesh this time.”

I narrowed my eyes at Mikey. “Well, aren’t we feeling snappy today?”

Mikey breathed out a laugh to himself as he turned away.

“Come on, Leya,” Ray told me as he got his bike out from under a tarp next to the house. It was a classic black Harley with a faded red side car—which now looked orange. “You can hold the container while you sit in the side car.”

Even though Ray let me use his helmet, which didn’t have a face guard, I felt even more scared for my life in the side car than I did on Mikey’s sports bike. I was waiting for it to detach from the Harley at any minute. I was closing my eyes almost the entire time.

It was even worse going over the dirt, even though there was a smooth pathway to the well. But soon enough, we stopped.

I practically threw myself out of the side car, smoothing my hair out—which got thrown completely out of control by the wind.

“What’s the matter? Too rough for the princess?” Mikey sarcastically teased as he got off his bike. “We warned you not to come…”

“No…” I replied while picking up the water container. “And really, with the ‘princess’ crack?”

“Your name _is_ Leya…” Mikey replied with a shrug.

I couldn’t think of anything else to say. I was so irritated. Has he always been this snarky?

Ray chuckled. “I tried to make the ride as smooth as possible, sorry.”

“It’s okay, Ray,” I answered. “And _thank you for not making fun of me!”_ I said this last sentence loud enough for Mikey to hear, who just looked the other way chuckling.

The opening of the well looked like a low, circular brick wall. There was no pulley or bucket like you see in typical storybook style wells.

Mikey shrugged off his jacket and tucked his glasses into his shirt—which was the same red shirt he’d worn two days in a row, already. Of course, I’m not one to judge. I’m still wearing this green shirt and the same jeans. But only because the rest of my clothes were in the Firebird. I wonder if Caelan went back to Sweetwater for real this time…

“Hey, I need the water container,” I heard Mikey say as I snapped out of my thoughts. He was already standing a few feet away from me, waiting for it with annoyed look on his face.

“Oh, right,” I answered as I handed it to him.

“I mean, um…thanks,” Mikey replied as he took it and his annoyed look dropped. Back to the quieter, subdued Mikey I was used to.

He went over to the well, and then Ray started tying the red cord around his waist. Mikey put his legs over the brick barricade and looked back at Ray as a signal that he was ready to go down into the well.

I decided to come closer, watching as Ray started lowering Mikey gradually down into the well. It looked kind of deep and it was very dark. Mikey was being lowered at least 15 ft down before he hit water.

We finally heard a splash. “I’m good, Ray!” Mikey called.

“Alright, just tell me when you’re ready to be pulled back up!” Ray returned while holding down the cord with his elbow against the edge of the well.

It was getting hot standing out here in the sun. At least while we were on the motorcycles, there was enough wind to dry the sweat.

A few seconds later, I could hear the faint sound of something rumbling over the dirt. I turned around to face it and saw a car coming. Who could that be?

“Ray,” I said as I stayed staring at the car coming this way. It was on the same path we took.

“Maybe they had the same idea as us…” Ray muttered. “Mikey, you almost done?”

“Just give me a few more seconds!” Mikey’s voice echoed up through the well.

The car was approaching closer and closer. I turned back to Ray. “Maybe we should get out of here…” I suggested as I looked down at Mikey. Though it was dark, I could see him with the submerged jug, filling with water.

“Why do you say that?” Ray asked as he held the cord.

“I don’t know, I just have a bad feeling about this…” I said as I crossed my arms. I started getting goosebumps.

“If you’re that worried, go over and get my ray gun,” Ray said.

I quickly walked over to the Harley when that car parked just several yards away from us.

“Okay, get me out of here!” I heard Mikey call out as two men stepped out of the dusty old Nissan. It was white, but most of the paint had been peeled off so much to reveal the metal underneath.

They came walking up to us slowly. I sat against the Harley, subtly taking the gun from the side car into my hand.

“Well, what are you all doin’ over here?” One of the men asked.

“We just came to get some water from the well. We were just leaving,” Ray explained as he started pulling the cord.

“Oh, no you aren’t,” the man replied while giving a stare. “That water is not yours to take.”

Ray quickly looked back down at Mikey, then at the man.

“Then whose water is it?” I asked.

The two men looked over at me. “It belongs to the ones that uphold the law. Us.”

“Uphold the law? What law?” Ray questioned.

“The law of these zones of course. Which is to keep homeless rats like you from stealing all the resources!”

“We thought it was free for everyone to take,” Ray started.

“Well, it ain’t. So you best step away from that well.”

“I can’t,” Ray replied with a glare.

“Drop that rope,” the man ordered.

“My friend’s still down there,” Ray explained.

“I said,” started the man as he took a ray gun out, “drop the rope.”

Ray stubbornly kept a hard gaze at the man, keeping a tight grip on the cord.

“Drop the rope, you son of a bitch!” The man fired at Ray’s feet. Ray shied away from the dust but he didn’t let go.

“Why don’t you just fucking leave it alone?!” I lashed out as I took Ray’s motorcycle helmet, took a few steps, and hurled it at the face of the asshole talking.

It hit him in the eye and he brought up his hands to his face. “Gah!” he let out.

“Leya…” Ray breathed out in shock.

“Ray, get me out of here!” I could hear Mikey’s voice echo.

The man started to laugh as he looked at the blood on his hands. “Oh, wow… You’re one feisty girl, aren’t you? You know, I hate that in a woman.“

I raised the gun with both of my hands at this guy.

He laughed. "You gonna shoot me? Well, that’s not very nice, is it?” He took a step forward while raising his gun. “Girl, do you really think you have the guts to take a shot at me? I got a gun, too, and you better bet your ass that I am not afraid to shoot a woman.”

I gulped.

“Leya, give me the gun, and you take the cord,” Ray urgently whispered to me.

I quickly shifted my eyes between Ray and the guy. Even if we did switch, there was too much time in that action. We’d be left open to target.

“You’re really gonna kill us for a little water?” I asked.

“That ain’t just a little water out here in the Zones,” he answered. “Now step away from the well like a good girl before I kill this motherfucker right here!” He pointed the gun toward Ray this time and I panicked.

*PEW*

I had fired off my gun to shoot.

“Ahh!” The gruff guy screamed out as he started hobbling on his left leg. I had hit him just above his right knee.

Even though he was bent over and grabbing at it with his left hand, he started shooting out lasers while his giant muscular friend started rushing toward me and Ray.

“Ray!” I called out as I started to rush toward the opposite side of the well for cover.

“I know!” he said as he started rushing over with the red cord still in his hands.

“You guys, just leave me here for a bit! I’ll be alright!” Mikey shouted from inside the well.

“Leya, stay here and hold the cord. I got these bastards…” Ray said as he handed me the cord and took the blue raygun from my hand. I stayed crouching behind the wall.

“You sure, Ray?” I asked.

“Mmhmm,” he said as he got up from his kneeling position on the dirt. We saw the giant lackey thundering over to us and Ray rose up and shot at his right bicep. The guy only flinched a little and kept coming.

Ray’s eyes slightly widened and he shot at the big guy a couple more times, hitting his ribs and shoulder. This time the guy slowed a little, grabbing at his shoulder.

Lasers still dusted along the other side of the well. I peeked up over and saw the other asshole hobbling over this way.

“Ray!” I yelled.

Ray looked over and started shooting in the direction of the first guy, but the huge guy met up with him and sucker-punched him in the jaw. Ray recovered quickly and sent his fist into the guy’s ribs where he was shot.

Meanwhile, the first creep was clumsily racing over while shooting towards Ray.

“Ray, watch out!” I yelled from my crouched position.

Ray quickly looked back and grabbed the buff guy’s shoulders to move him in front of him. Unwittingly, his friend still sent shots out, finally hitting something this time.

The big guy groaned as he started hunching over, looking ready to topple over Ray.

“Garrett!” the talkative one screamed as he continued running up to see the consequences of his mistake.

Ray reached around Garrett’s hulking torso and shot out at his panicking companion. A laser grazed the back of his hand and he dropped his ray gun. Ray ran ahead of Garrett and came close to him, kicking away the fallen gun in the process.

“Leave now,” Ray said while pointing the gun toward this guy’s face. The wounded creep only scowled at this as he lunged after Ray. But it was ineffective as Ray overpowered him and pushed him down to the dirt.

“Go ahead,” the jerk on the ground gruffly addressed Ray. “Kill me.”

Ray frowned and swung his ray gun into the back of the guy’s head, knocking him out. He fell to the ground in a heap.

“Is it over?” Mikey’s voice echoed from inside the well. I sprang up and started pulling on the cord to bring him back up.

“Yeah, it’s over,” I replied down into the well.

Mikey heaved a big sigh. Ray came over and helped me bring Mikey up. As Mikey neared the top of the well, he handed me the container of water before Ray helped him over the wall. From his stomach down, he was soaked in water and shaking out his legs to get some water out of his black jeans.

I looked over at our enemies. They were covered in splotches of their own blood. The big guy Garrett was barely even moving, although I assumed he was still conscious as he lied facedown on the ground.

I never expected things to turn out so violent.

“Should we…should we help them?” I asked.

Mikey and Ray’s eyes widened.

“Help them? They just tried to kill us!” Mikey lashed out.

“But they’re hurt… Are we just going to leave that guy to die?” I  asked.

Ray looked down with a sad expression. “I don’t think there’s anything we could do to help him.”

I looked down. I fired the first shot. This is my fault.

“They were going to kill us, Leya,” Mikey told me with a steady gaze. “They were just a couple of idiots looking for trouble. They wouldn’t have spared us, so…don’t feel bad.”

“Mikey’s right,” Ray added. “Out here, it’s kill or be killed. Even between Killjoys.”

I was quiet as I softly nodded.

“We should head home now,” he continued.

We walked back to the bikes and I sat in the sidecar again with the full jar of water. I squinted my eyes as the sun’s reflection of the plastic jar shined at me.

So much trouble for just a little water.


	8. Transmission 1

#############

He-

#############

Hello?#######

#####

Listen, if anyone’s out ther@$#%^$@&^W#@

%%%##@#&@###&@

-really need help.

#################

I’m stuck over by###########

I don’t have any water left, I don’t have a way to trave-####

Just–If anyone is out ther-####

Send help.

######

God damnit-######

////I don’t know how much longer I can last////

###########

/////////////My name is Frank//////////////

#####################################################


	9. Chapter 9

The sun was already starting to go down by the time we got back to Ray and Mikey’s place. Ray got to work putting the container of water under the sink to hook it up to the apparatus that allowed them to get water from the faucet. Meanwhile, I sat on the edge of Ray’s bed with my elbows resting on my knees.

Mikey took the aviator sunglasses from his face, gently folding them as he bent to leave them on the small table next to the wall. His hand lingered over them for a few seconds after. Then he stood up straight and turned to me.

“I’m gonna go change. Help yourself to anything you want in those cabinets next to the sink. We don’t have much, but it’s edible.” He made an awkward smirk from the side of his mouth at that. I could tell he had something serious on his mind.

I think we all had serious thoughts on our mind. It’s what made the atmosphere feel so heavy in this poorly lit dwelling.

I heard a small clattering noise from the sink and then Ray say, “All done!”

He came walking over to me and sighed as he plopped down on the edge of the bed.

I looked over and asked, “How are you feeling, Ray? You got a little hurt back there…”

Ray gently smiled and answered with a dismissive wave of his hand, “Oh, that was nothing! I’m fine, really!”

“You sure?” I asked. He got punched in the face by a giant. How is he okay?

“Yeah, Leya! Stop being such a worrywart,” he said with a chuckle. “You’re gonna give Mikey a run for his money, you know!”

I looked down with a smile.

A few seconds later, Mikey walked into the room wearing a tattered black T-shirt, that looked like it had a bunch of print on it, but was mostly faded. I could see small spots of his nearly white skin beneath the tatters. He was also wearing blue jeans that had tears and holes in them around the knees and just below. The raggediness of his clothes shows just how much he lives in them. Then again, that’s what most Killjoys look like.

“Your jaw’s going to swell if you don’t put anything on it,” Mikey gestured to Ray as he pointed at him.

“I’ll be fine,” was all Ray replied with.

Mikey’s right eyebrow twitched slightly before he reached to smooth out the front section of his dark hair. It was standing up a bit on its ends from being splashed on in the well.

I looked between Mikey and Ray, waiting to see what to do next. What were we supposed to do next?

“We should get ready, you know, to leave tomorrow morning,” Ray finally said.

Mikey darted his eyes toward him. “You’re still up for it?”

“Yeah, I am!” Ray replied with raised eyebrows. “If anything, what happened today made me realize that scuffles with Killjoys are probably the least of the trouble Frank’s gotten into. He shouldn’t be out there by himself. And it’s way past time that we went and looked for him.”

A tiny smile grew on Mikey’s lips. “Good. I would hate to be out there without you. Or with a not-entirely convicted you.”

Ray smiled and nodded.

Mikey turned to me. “So are you ready for this?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I replied.

“Good. Let’s get started on the packing!” Mikey nearly chirped with enthusiasm.

It was the most positive I’ve seen him in the last 2 days.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last.

*****

“No…”

“No…”

“Gahhhh!!!”

I woke up in shock, my heart beating fast as I tried to calm my startled heart. This time, I was the only one awake. Ray was still breathing heavily in his sleep on the floor.

I could hear Mikey’s shallow breathing as he must have woken up. I heard a sniffle. It sounded like he might be crying.

A part of me wanted to listen to Ray, to just stay where I was, since nothing I did would probably do any good. But the other part of me wanted to go into that room and see what was wrong, to do something!

I got up out of the bed and gingerly stood up, so as to not wake up Ray. Even though the mattress creaked a bit, he just turned over on his side and kept sleeping. I held in my breath as I tip-toed across the carpet and went down the hallway to Mikey’s room.

I just realized I had never even been in it.

I wonder if I’m trespassing.

His door was halfway open. I peered inside, seeing just a muddle of shapes in the darkness. I could hear him sniffling.

Staying by the doorway, I whispered out into the dark, “Mikey?”

There was no response but the sniffling stopped.

I took in a gulp and asked, “Mikey, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I heard a quiet voice reply to me.

It was silent again for a few seconds. But he hasn’t told me to leave yet, so that’s something, right?

“I’m sorry I woke you up,” Mikey whispered to me. His voice was so small I could barely hear it.

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it,” I replied.

There was another silence.

My eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness that I could see the carpet and the lack of pretty much anything in this room. He had a smaller bed than Ray and one cabinet in his room, which looked like it contained a few small piles of clothes. I could see Mikey sitting with his shoulders slumped forward, his dark hair creating too much shadow around his face. But I could see his pale legs sticking out from what must have been shorts, reaching down to his knees.

Cautiously, I took a step into the room. Then the other. I kept edging into the room until I got near Mikey. I think he looked up at me once I got next to him, but he didn’t say anything.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered out to him.

“Why are you sorry?” Mikey asked, the surprise making his voice a little louder than a whisper.

“I’m sorry about Gerard…and Frank. I’m sorry about what happened to you. I’m sorry that there’s nothing I can do to help,” I continued. I could feel tears coming into my eyes.

Mikey didn’t respond right way.

“You’re helping,” he finally said as he looked up at me.

I didn’t respond. How was I possibly helping?

“You can sit if you want,” Mikey continued with a whisper.

I sat down next to him, making the lumpy mattress creak as I did so.

We were quiet for several more seconds.

“It does get a little easier,” I finally started.

I could sense Mikey’s head turn toward me without even looking.

“…them being gone, that is. I mean, it never goes away, but it gets a little easier. I haven’t seen my sister in…a year. I don’t even know if she’s alive…” I continued.

Mikey was still quiet.

“But I still believe she’s out there, somewhere, waiting for me. I miss her everyday. And every night it still feels wrong to go to sleep and not know where she is. But it gets easier,” I repeated.

“Thanks,” Mikey told me in the darkness. I cracked a corner of a smile that I was sure he couldn’t see.

“No problem,” I replied.

We sat in silence for about another minute. Finally, it wasn’t awkward. It was starting to feel like before.

“We’ll find Frank,” Mikey announced out of nowhere. His voice started sounding strong again. “He’s too damn stubborn to die,” he snorted.

“Yeah,” I replied with a light breath of laugh myself.

I had barely begun to let it really register in my head that Frank may be alive. My heartbeat faltered just thinking of the likely possibility.

Mikey started yawning at that point.

“You should go back to sleep,” I told him.

“Yeah, probably,” he replied with a light chuckle.

“I’ll see you in the morning, then,” I said as I stood up.

“Okay. Goodnight,” Mikey told me.

“Goodnight,” I replied.

I walked out of Mikey’s room, turning slightly to see him settling back onto his mattress. Hopefully no more nightmares would wake him up.

After I settled back into my temporary bed, I didn’t go to sleep right away. Even though I had been able to sleep easier here, I still wouldn’t call it sleep.

After what happened at Sweetwater those few months ago, I got a bit of closure for what happened with Jax, Diamondback, Sniper, and even Jonah and Susana. So the nightmares I used to have stopped.

But just a few weeks later, new nightmares began.

Perhaps that’s not the right term. Because the dreams themselves weren’t terrifying.

I had been dreaming about the Fabulous Killjoys. That they were alive and well. That we were together. They appeared in my dreams almost every night. And almost every morning I would have to remind myself that they were never coming back. It was like cutting a fresh wound each day, never letting it heal.

Of course, now that’s all changed.

Mikey and Ray are here. They’re alive. And Frank’s somewhere. And Gerard…well, Gerard may be somewhere, too.

Yet even though I have these new pieces of information to comfort myself, a part of me is still scared to sleep. I’m so used to waking up in the middle of the night because of some terror, so the question is: what new horrors await my subconscious?

Before I could think about this for too long, I drifted off to sleep.

A dreamless sleep.

*****

The following morning, we all woke up around the same time. It wasn’t super early, and it wasn’t late either. The previous night we had all packed food/water supplies, the guys packed their guns and a bunch of small gadgets Ray had. I had shown Ray and Mikey the coordinates Angel had pointed out on my map.

“How long ago was Show Pony seen here?” Mikey asked me as he studied the map in his hands.

“3 or 4 days ago, Angel said,” I replied. “He said he had a friend there, Lucky Carlo, who saw him.”

“Lucky Carlo… does that ring a bell?” questioned Ray with a crease in his brow.

Mikey shook his head while tucking in his bottom lip as he continued studying the route. “Well, let’s just get here first,“ he remarked as he handed the map to Ray.

“Are we gonna take the off-routes?” Ray asked.

“Of course,” Mikey replied as he picked up the aviator sunglasses from the small table. "The border patrol along Route Guano plus being that close to Battery City will only bring us more trouble. I think it would be easier to drive through Zone 5 and then take route 421 into Zone 4. It’ll take longer to get to our destination, but it’s safer, I think.”

He and Ray looked over at me, as if to ask what I think.

“I…uh, that’s fine with me,” I said, not really knowing anything about what they were talking about. It was my first time driving out around these parts of the Zones, so I’ll take their word on anything concerning driving routes.

Ray turned back to the map, and then closed it, handing it to me.

Mikey quickly slipped on his sunglasses and walked through the kitchen hallway. “Make sure we didn’t forget anything important,” he called back to me and Ray.

Ray started checking around his bed and the surrounding area while I just stood here, unsure of what to look for. Everything I owned was in my bag, plus some gadgets.

“All good!” Ray called.

“Good,” Mikey remarked as he came walking back. He looked between me and Ray. “Well, let’s go!”

After walking out, Ray locked the mobile home with three large dead bolt locks.

I wonder if I’ll see this place again…

I was broken from my thoughts as I felt a tap on my elbow. I turned around to see Mikey putting on his leather gloves while telling me, “You’re riding with me today.”

I blinked in surprise. “Why?” I asked.

His mouth seemed to go into even more than a frown than it usually was. “Because the supplies need to go in Ray’s side car,” he sighed. “Also, we have to take dirt roads on the way to Zone 4, and seeing how well you took it last time, I think you’d be better off just riding with me.”

“Oh,” was all I replied with, feeling a little relieved I wasn’t going to be in the side car this time.

Mikey turned and walked toward the tarp-covered bikes, where Ray had already unveiled his Harley. He was already putting in supplies in the side car. Mikey started helping.

Well, I guess this was it. The next leg of my journey, that is. I tightened the straps of my cinch bag that I had slung over both of my shoulders. It was a little heavier because I was carrying a radio receiver the guys had.

Once all the supplies were tied in and tarped, Mikey handed me his black helmet. I took it and placed it on my head, once again suffocating a bit… How the hell did he wear this thing, considering he probably had a bigger head than me?

I tried to move it around left and right until it felt a bit more comfortable.

“Let me help you,” I heard with a giggle from Mikey. He came and adjusted the helmet once again, fastening the straps under my chin. I would have to ask him to show me how to do it later…

He lifted up the tinted visor, so now I could see him in full color. “How are you doing in there?” he asked, a small smile on his lips.

“I’m fine,” I replied in a muffled voice as I rolled my eyes.

“Okay…” Mikey answered as he crossed his arms. “Try not to rip off my flesh this time,” he continued with a smirk. He dropped down my visor and then turned on his heel and got on the bike.

He seemed to be in a good mood, at least…

Ray was already settling in on his Harley while putting on his helmet, too.

I followed Mikey, getting on the seat behind him and placing my hands around his ribs, purposely trying not to fix my nails on them.

Mikey didn’t make a note of it. He had pushed the aviators to the top of his head and was busy looking up at the sky, for whatever weird reason…

He turned back to me for a second, giving me a small smile from the corner of his mouth. It wasn’t like the ones he’d been giving me earlier. It seemed like a sort of “Good Luck” kind of expression. I made a small smile of my own in return.

“You ready, Ray?” he called over. I noticed Ray had small tufts of curly hair poking out from his small black helmet.

“More than ready, man, let’s do this!” Ray answered as he put on his own aviator sunglasses.

Mikey revved up the engine, while I held on, and Ray followed suit.

Before long, we were out on the road, in the pursuit of this guy Show Pony. But more importantly, in the pursuit of Frank.

I don’t know if Mikey was just taking more care to drive less like a lunatic or if the daytime just made this less scary, but the ride really wasn’t that bad. Sure, I still had to hold on tight, and I think I might have made it harder for Mikey to breathe, but I wasn’t nearly as scared as the first time.

Ray was next to us the entire time, which was about 2 hours. Fortunately, we didn’t hit any trouble, which must be like a record for us out here in the Zones. So we got into Zone 4 relatively easy.

“Now all we have to do is find this guy, Lucky Carlo…” Mikey muttered as he and Ray were pumping gas into their bikes.We were atanother abandoned gas station. I’m surprised there was still one this close to Battery City, but we are relatively on the outskirts of Zone 4.

I was standing next to the bike, stretching out my legs and arms. I still had the helmet on, so I didn’t have to deal with putting it on again.

“Well, that shouldn’t be too hard. Once we find anyone who lives here that is…” Ray answered as he looked out across the road.

There was NOTHING here.

No people, no houses, no cars. Nothing. Just dirt and Joshua Trees. I’m almost a little worried that Angel may have misled me. I sure fucking hope not.

Mikey was looking at the map I had given him in one hand while he kept his other hand on the gas pump.

“We just have to keep going a little further. I’m sure we’ll find our guy soon,” Mikey responded.“Besides, you know Show Pony… it’s not like he’s one to make an effort to be incognito wherever he travels…”

Ray chuckled. “Yeah, I guess not. How Dr. D manages to stick with him for so long baffles me sometimes…”

“So you guys know Show Pony personally?” I asked through the helmet.

Mikey and Ray looked toward me and then back to each other before answering me.

“We were all friends–us and Dr. D and his crew–before we escaped from Battery City,” Ray started to explain as he smoothed out the small afro on his head. “Not extremely close, but when the Resistance started up, we all banded together. Ever since then, we’ve all helped each other out from time to time.”

“So he’ll be willing to help us, then?” I asked.

“Of course!” Ray answered with a bright smile.

I nodded my head in response. I hope he’s right.

Soon, they finished pumping gas, and we were off again. It was hot now, still early in the afternoon, but bright enough to make me tired, even with the helmet I had on. It was about 20 minutes of a drive before Mikey, Ray and I got to a bit of civilization. It looked like a small strip of an old ghost town, gray hollow buildings with faded signs on them, old cars rusting into brown monuments in the dirt.

Mikey stopped for a bit in the middle of the road. “This has to be the place on that map,” he told me and Ray.

We all looked around. There was almost no one in sight. The only person we really saw was some raggedy man digging around in a pile of junk off the side of one old building.

“Should we ask someone where to find this guy Lucky Carlo?” I asked.

“Maybe…” Mikey said as he continued scanning the scenery. “Let’s just scout a bit more of this town, and see if we can’t find anyone else. I highly doubt that that’s our man…”

We rolled slowly through the town, Mikey and Ray’s bikes rumbling quietly, but still being the loudest things out here. It was a bit eery how abandoned this place was.

Mikey was just rounding the corner of another building when we heard a clatter somewhere.

I turned around to see what it was, and all I saw were hub caps rolling around. “Guys, I think there’s someone back there,” I quickly pointed out.

Mikey quickly turned around, kicking up a lot of dirt into the air, and went back to where the hubcaps were still settling into the ground with a loud rippling clatter.

We rounded the corner of the adjacent building to see someone running away. They had dark, short, wavy hair and were dressed in baggy olive green clothes from what I could tell, looking back at us quickly before running faster.

“Hey, get back here!” Mikey shouted as he revved up the engine.

The person who had been running away then turned around and dug something out of their green jacket pocket. He threw whatever it was, landing just in front of us, and I could see that it was a white cord, slightly emitting blue sparks on the ground.

“Oh shit!” Mikey exclaimed as he hit the brakes. With only a second to react, the bike swerved with great force to the point that it started to tip over on the side–

Fuck–

The world tipped over on its side for me, until I felt my head hit the floor, my wrist burning, and aches all over the side of my right leg. Shit, I must have been thrown from the bike…

I tried to get myself upright onto the gravel, wincing once I felt the skin on my wrist stinging. I apprehensively looked, and sure enough, I had skinned it from part of the back of my hand down 5 inches of the side of my wrist. Bright red dots of blood coming out from the pink raw skin, along with microscopal pebbles.

“Fuck,” I groaned out.

I looked out ahead of me, remembering that I wasn’t the only one here. I could first see Mikey’s bike fallen over on the ground and then I saw him rushing over to me.

“Ray, follow him!” Mikey yelled out. From what I could see, he was dusty all over, with the aviator glasses tucked into his black t-shirt, but there were no visible injuries I could see.

“Are you okay, Leya? I’m so sorry–” he started as he knelt down to help me up.

I was busy trying to take off the helmet at this point, so I only answered once I wrestled it off, seeing the scrapes on its sides. “I’m fine. I just got scraped up a bit.”

“I didn’t know what to do–I’m sorry–you sure you’re alright?!” Mikey asked while looking me over with wide hazel eyes while I stood up.

I had never seen him so panicked.

“Mikey, I’m alright! Really, don’t worry about it,” I answered. He was now looking toward my scrape with a fixed, concerned stare.

He let out a short breath. “Fuck, I should have been more careful. I’m sorry.”

“Mikey, quit apologizing!” I cut him off. “It was just an accident. Besides, we should go catch up with Ray, and get this guy.”

Mikey nodded his head. “You’re right. Come on, I don’t think the bike got affected by the taser strip.”

“Taser strip?” I asked as I put on the helmet again. This time I wasn’t exactly suffocating, but I wouldn’t make the effort to strap it correctly.

“Yeah, if the bike went over that, the electronics would have been disabled. The bike would have been trashed. It would have all been over for us,” Mikey explained as he pulled me by my unafflicted left wrist.

I waited until he picked up his bike and got onto it before hopping on myself. Mikey punched the ignition and luckily the bike started and worked. We made our way out into the main street again, trying to look out for Ray again.

“Stop it right there!” we heard Ray’s voice shout from not too far away.

Mikey sped up in the direction of his voice and we heard a scream.

“Fuck, Ray!” Mikey shouted as he turned the next corner. I held on tighter this time.

Once we rounded the corner of gravel, we could see that Ray had the guy in baggy olive green clothes cornered and kneeling against the side of an old white building. Ray had his ray gun out, and he had stepped away from the bike.

Mikey sped up and got next to the two, putting on the parking brake.

“Yo, you’re not gonna really shoot me, are ya?!” the man on the ground exclaimed. He had a tan face with dark features. When he spoke, I could see gold shining from his teeth.

“After nearly killing us with that bitchass taser move,” Mikey retorted as he got off the bike,“you better have a good explanation of what you’re doing here if you want to live.”

“That’s a little bit of a forced accusation, ain’t it? I mean, no one forced you to hit the brakes and send your little friend here flying.” He had pointed toward me as he said that with a bland look of nonchalance.

Mikey lunged forward and grabbed the guy by his jacket collar, throwing him up against the wall. Some of the old, chipping paint came raining down in flakes.

“Why were you after us?” Mikey growled as he held his ray gun to the guy’s side.

“You know,” the guy groaned, “I should really be the one asking what you three are doing here… We don’t get many drifters up in these parts. What the hell are you three doing all the way out here?”

“Just answer my question!” Mikey shouted into his face.

“You all had bikes! The only people you ever see on bikes are people who work for BL/ind!” our hostage quickly muttered.

“Go on…” Ray said while having his arms crossed in front of him.

“So I thought ya’ll were gonna start shootin’ up in this place–at people like me! I was taking precautions…”

“Do we fucking look like we work for BL/ind?” Mikey growled.

The tan guy eyed all of us collectively. “Come to think of it, not really,” he chuckled.

Mikey pushed the guy’s head against the wall again.

“Ow!” he exclaimed. “Hey, how about we just put this thing all to rest? You go your way, I go mine… Come on…”

“You know, maybe we should just let this go,” Ray cut in. “I mean, no real harm was done. And maybe he can even help us.”

Mikey stayed staring at the tan guy with a hostile look.

“You know, Ray’s right,” I added. I had taken my helmet off during the little scuffle between Mikey and our hostage. “Maybe he can help us.”

“I don’t want this scumbag’s help,” Mikey replied with a sneer.

“Well, maybe _I_ don’t want to help _you_ , how ‘bout that?” the guy retorted with a raised eyebrow.

“We’re looking for someone named Lucky Carlo,” I said, not waiting for anyone to make a decision. “You know him?”

“Maybe. What do ya’ll need him for?” the guy answered with an insolent stare.

“Do you know him or not?” I repeated.

“Well now, maybe if I got a description, I could help you out…” he replied as he rolled his eyes.

“I don’t have a description. I was told to come look for him in this town,” I continued.

“Told by who?” the guy questioned again.

“Just this bartender named Angel,” I answered with a frustrated sigh.

“Angel?” the guy questioned.

“Yeah. Look, do you know who I’m talking about or not?” I said as I put my hands on my hips.

“You know Angel? The guy with the blue and red hair?” he asked while actually looking interested.

I creased my eyebrows. “Yeah, he’s the one. What does that have to do with–”

“Angel’s my boy!” the guy said with a wide grin, showing off half a top row of gold teeth. “Just talked to him last week, actually!”

“Look, are you gonna help me find this guy Lucky Carlo or not?” I asked with an annoyed sigh.

“Oh, well that’s me!” he answered with a grin.

Ray, Mikey, and I all looked between each other.

“What?” I questioned.

“Yeah, I’m Lucky Carlo! I was just pullin’ your nuts–well, not that _you_ have any, but–yessir, it’s me, Lucky Carlo.”

Before I could respond, Mikey swung a fist down onto Lucky Carlo’s left cheek.

“Oof!” he let out as he bent down onto the ground.

“Mikey!” Ray and I exclaimed.

Mikey turned around without a word, going back to his bike with a scowl.

“Can’t say I didn’t deserve that. I pissed your friend off pretty bad, eh?” Lucky Carlo remarked with a laugh.

I sighed. “How about we just go somewhere more decent to talk? My name’s Leya.”

“Enchanté, Miss Leya, and…” he gestured to Ray.

Ray didn’t respond.

“Okay, I see how it is…” Lucky Carlo responded with a dark look. “I guess you do all have a reason to resent me. Sorry about your fall.”

“You can make up for it by answering my questions. I expect good things coming from a friend of Angel’s,” I told him, trying to keep things relatively unhostile.

He weakly got up from the wall, wiping his cheek, which had a bit of blood on it now from the sucker punch Mikey gave him.

“For sure! Come on guys, just follow me! Oh, and you can just call me Carlo, if you want!”


	10. Chapter 10

Lucky Carlo had dusted himself off and started walking toward the main road of the small town. Ray and I followed, Ray slowly rolling his Harley over by the handlebars. Mikey did the same several feet behind us. He had a scowl on his face, obviously still pissed.

No one was in this dusty town, and it was quiet once more now that the commotion had stopped.

“So where are you guys from?” Lucky Carlo asked.

I looked back at Ray and then Mikey. Their eyes looked a bit apprehensive.

I turned back to Lucky Carlo. “We’re not really from anywhere at the moment,” I answered.

He nodded his head while scratching at his scruffy jaw. “Alright…”

Before long, we got to this beaten-down looking garage. “Roy’s Tire Barn” was what the faded capital letters read on the side of the small, square building. Lucky Carlo got close to the side of the steel garage door, while grabbing a key out of one of his olive green jacket pockets. A few seconds later, the lock was released and he started pushing up the door.

“You can take your bikes inside,” he called to Mikey and Ray over the noise of the opening door.

We walked inside, and the dusty old gray garage was cold, with the lack of much light. It smelled of dust and faintly of car oil. There was a couch littered with several pillows and two quilts, a coffee table, and on the far side of the garage, racks of old tires and rims.

After I handed over the helmet to Mikey, he and Ray set down their bikes, while Lucky Carlo closed the garage door from the inside, preparing to lock it again.

The cold made me feel the stinging in my right wrist again. I looked down, turning my arm to inspect the scrape. I put my wrist up close to my face so I could see the damage. The blood appeared to have dried, although the shredded skin around it looked gross. My lower right thigh was also pulsing with pain. I’m pretty sure I have a nasty bruise there.

“Guys, come over here,” Lucky Carlo’s voice boomed with the echoes of the high ceiling in the garage.

I let my wrist drop back to my side and looked forward to see Lucky Carlo pushing the coffee table to the side. As Mikey, Ray, and I approached, I could see a square outline in the ground that the coffee table was covering. Lucky Carlo knelt down, feeling around the lines, and finally lifted up what looked like a hatch.

“There’s a ladder in here. You guys go in first,” Carlo said as he stood up.

“Over my dead body. You’re going in first,” Mikey quickly quipped.

“I need to go in last so I can close it,” Lucky Carlo replied with a sigh.

“Doesn’t look like rocket science,” Ray answered with a steady stare.

Lucky Carlo’s eyes narrowed a bit in anger. “You know, ya’ll need to be more trustworthy.” He knelt down anyway, and lowered himself into the duct, legs first, starting to go down the ladder.

Ray followed. And then Mikey gestured for me to go ahead. As I went down the skinny metal rungs of the ladder, I noticed tiny bulbs of light on the sides of the duct to somewhat light our way down. I looked up to see Mikey coming down, closing the hatch above his head. It got much darker after that, but in less than half a minute, we were all down on the subterranean level.

Down here, it was warmer and more brightly lit, and much more extravagantly furnished. The floor was covered in deep purple carpet, porcelain vase lamps dotted the room, two velvet red couches were in one corner, on one wall, there appeared to be four stereo systems, the walls were dotted with mirrors of different shapes and sizes, the coffee table and what looked like a dining table appeared to be shining mahogany, and there was even a small counter decorated by random neon signs on the wall above it. Apart from the furniture, there were a bunch of small things, like random trophies, action figures, even stuffed animals dotting all the open space.

“Welcome to Casa de Lucky Carlo!” our host beamed.

I looked to see Ray and Mikey’s reaction, and they were looking around the room in the same curiosity and bemusement I was.

“You guys can relax, sit down–you want a drink?” Lucky Carlo asked as he shrugged off his jacket to reveal a navy blue t-shirt and walked over to the counter under the neon signs of a flamingo, an outline of a naked girl, and a yellow and blue flashing vacancy sign. He pushed a switch to turn on music, some poppy 1970’s ballad started playing loudly until he lowered the volume to a soft background.

Lucky Carlo turned back toward us, who were still standing in the same place.

He lifted his hands up in vexation. “Well, are you just gonna stand there with stupid looks on your faces all day? Come on! I’m being pretty damn hospitable here.”

Ray, Mikey, and I looked between each other. I made the initiative to start walking over to one of the red couches. Ray and Mikey slowly paced as they followed, still looking around themselves.

As I sat on the couch, I took the pack off of my back, pulling the strings to open it and check that nothing had been broken in my fall from Mikey’s bike. Luckily, everything was still intact. I breathed a sigh of relief and started taking off my sweater, being extra careful not to let the sleeve catch onto my right wrist as I slipped it off.

“So what’ll it be?” Lucky Carlo asked as he drummed his hands on the counter. Funny how he seemed to be taking up bartender duty, like his friend Angel.

“I just want water, man…” Ray answered with a tired sigh settling onto the couch near me.

“Same,” Mikey added as he sunk down into the couch on my left.

“Me too,” I said.

Lucky Carlo scrunched his lips to the side. “Well that’s no fun…” He proceeded to start mixing something anyway.

Mikey started unstrapping his leather gloves, setting them on the mahogany table in front of us. Then he unzipped his leather jacket, taking a small white box out from inside of it. He set it on the table. Mikey continued pulling off his jacket with a sigh and placed it to the left of him on the seat.

Curious, I looked at the white box carefully, and I could now see that it was a first aid kit. It didn’t take me more than half a second to realize what that was for.

“How’s your arm?” Ray asked, breaking the silence. He was pointing toward my right arm, which I immediately withdrew from view.

With both my hands now clasped and resting on my lap, I answered, “It’s fine.”

I could hear Mikey swallow before he started, “I can patch it up. If you leave it alone like that, you’re going to get it infected, if you already haven’t.” He was looking at my wrist and not my face while he said all of this.

“Um…” I started, not sure of what to say. I had been bandaged up by Mikey plenty of times, and usually I argued against it, but now… and the way he’s asking politely because for him it’s like the first time he’ll be doing it…

“I insist. After all, it’s my fault you got scraped up in the first place,” Mikey continued as he looked at me now. His eyes looked so painfully guilty.

“It’s not your fault,” I quickly replied. “And, well–okay, I guess…”

Ray started to stand. “I’ll switch places with you,” he said, directed at Mikey. “So you can work on her arm.”

Mikey nodded and stood up as well. The two switched places, sitting on either side of me.

Mikey cleared his throat. “Um, could I…?” he pointed towards my scraped wrist.

“Yeah, go ahead,” I replied, feeling awkward. I was used to him manhandling me whenever he wanted to fix up any damage I had done to myself. All this politeness was a bit unnerving.

Mikey took a hold of my wrist, turning it to see the extent of the scrape. The skin was bright pink with dark dots of dried blood and dirt streaked across it.

“Here are your waters!” Lucky Carlo was coming across the way with 4 glasses, two held by each hand. The glasses clinked as he set them down onto the mahogany coffee table.

Mikey had released my wrist at that point and looked up at Lucky Carlo. “Do you have soap and running water down here?”

Our host rolled his eyes. “What the hell kind of operation do you think I’m running here?!”

Mikey blinked his eyes at Lucky Carlo, remaining silent.

“ _Yes_ , I have soap and running water…” Lucky Carlo added with a droll look.

“Good,” was all Mikey replied with as he stood up from the couch. He turned to me. “Come on. You need to clean up your wrist before I can bandage it.”

I stood up, following Mikey as we passed Lucky Carlo, who started striking up a conversation with Ray.

Mikey and I made our way to the counter Lucky Carlo was at just a minute ago. There was a tiny sink and faucet here. Mikey opened one of the dark wooden cabinets and fished out a small bottle of Zap-out, a liquid soap cleaner.

He squeezed out the soap into his left palm and rubbed his hands together before turning on the faucet. And then he let the water run over his hands.

“Here, stick out your arm,” he told me after he finished rinsing the soap off of his hands. I did as told and felt the slow stream of water fall onto my arm as Mikey flicked the water off of his hands.

After about ten seconds, Mikey turned the water off and started walking back toward the velvet couches. I followed.

He turned back to me, saying, “This won’t take long. But your skin is raw and exposed so that’s why it’s important that you keep it covered.”

I nodded back to him. He made a small smile. This is probably the nicest he’s been to me since I confronted him at the Black Widow.

We came back to sit down on the couch with Ray to my left, while Lucky Carlo was sitting on the couch to the right, sipping on what looked like a clear liquid (but I’m sure it wasn’t water).

“So you’re saying that you’re the only one with radio signal reception within 10 miles?” Ray was asking.

Lucky Carlo nodded as he cradled the glass in between his hands. “I’m the one with the only receptor, so yeah.”

“Hm,” Ray remarked as he started rubbing a chin. “Come to think of it, you do seem to be a bit of a packrat. How did you come to own all this stuff in here?”

Lucky Carlo grinned. “It’s part of the reason why they call me lucky. I just find things. All around the desert.”

“And how is it that no one else around here has as much as you?” Ray continued questioning.

Lucky Carlo shrugged in his loose t-shirt. “How the hell should I know? And it’s not exactly a poppin’ place up above, in case you didn’t notice. I have to keep a low profile and keep this all a secret.”

“So why were you above ground today?” Mikey asked as he leaned forward and took a glass of water.

Lucky Carlo turned toward him. “You know, that’s enough about me. Didn’t you guys have something else to ask me?”

Mikey turned toward me, as did Lucky Carlo and Ray.

I cleared my throat. “I spoke to your friend Angel a couple of days ago. He said that you had seen this guy called Show Pony. I was wondering if you could tell me more about this and help me find him.”

Lucky Carlo’s eyebrows furrowed. “What’s his name?”

“Show Pony,” I repeated. I hope he’s not messing around again.

“Show Pony…” he muttered to himself as he rubbed his chin.

“You’d know him if you saw him. He’s pretty… flamboyant,” Mikey added.

“Flamboyant, how?” Lucky Carlo asked.

“He has a penchant for bright colors, cut-off shirts, and rollerskates…” Ray input.

“Oh! I think I know who you’re talking about! Dark hair, fruity-looking tights on?” Lucky Carlo asked as he looked at each of us.

“I don’t know who else it would be. So you saw him?” Mikey asked.

Lucky Carlo nodded with a snort. “Yep.”

“So where is he now?” I asked, a little too eagerly.

“How am I supposed to know?” Lucky Carlo asked with creased eyebrows.

“Well, you saw him! Didn’t he tell you anything?” I questioned.

Lucky Carlo put his palms out in defense. “Whoa–just hold up here! I never said I talked to the guy. I just saw him.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You just _saw_ him? Then why would Angel send me over here to ask you for help?!” I was almost shouting now. This is not what I anticipated.

“Fuck if I know!” Lucky Carlo replied with a high pitched voice. “Look, Angel and I are buddies. I was talking to him from my transmitter the other day. Mentioned how I saw some fruity guy on roller skates rollin’ through town. He was bein’ chased by BL/ind agents on motorcycles. They were headed south–in Angel’s direction–I was just giving him a heads up. That’s also why I was a bit paranoid earlier.”

Well, that information would have been useful a few days ago…

I didn’t respond, trying to calm myself down from the frustration. Why the fuck didn’t Angel just tell me that himself?

“That’s it?” Mikey asked with an irritable tone.

Lucky Carlo narrowed his eyes at Mikey. “Hey, I’ve had enough of your attitude. I ain’t saying no more unless you start acting more polite.”

Mikey glared at Lucky Carlo just before slamming his glass on the table and jumping up.

“Mikey, don’t!” I hushed out as I reached out and grabbed at his left elbow. He looked back at me in surprise, mid-rise. He then sat back down, pushing the brown hair back from his face. I let go of his arm.

“So your name’s Mikey? That’s cute,” Lucky Carlo remarked with a smile. Mikey continued to glare at him. His fists were turning so white from how hard he was clenching them.

“God, you’re like a cat–get riled up so quick and then just like that–” Lucky Carlo snapped his fingers. “–Ready to fucking pounce on me or something,” he laughed.

This time Ray stood up. “Alright, I think it’s about time we just all calm down and speak like civilized people.”

We were all looking at him now. He cleared his throat. “So you said you saw Show Pony getting chased by agents?”

“Yeah,” Lucky Carlo replied.

“So why would this be relevant information to relay to your friend in the south?” Ray continued with his arms crossed.

“Angel knows a lot, man. If BL/ind wants to get any info on anyone, Angel’s the prime guy to go to.”

“So if you saw Show Pony getting chased, why didn’t you do anything to help?” Ray continued with a straight face.

Lucky Carlo looked to the side and then down at his glass. “Look…I’m not the strongest guy out here. There was only so much I’d be able to do and by the time I even got close enough to do anything, they’d already shot him.”

We were all silent now.

“He didn’t die,” Lucky Carlo continued. “But they got him in the leg, so he couldn’t run anymore. Then they took him with them. Probably because everyone knows he and Dr. Death are so tight.”

“How long ago was this?” Ray asked.

“Mmm… I’d say 4 or 5 days ago. My concept of time is shot.”

Ray was looking down in thought now. “You know where they would have taken him?” he continued.

“I’m sorry… I have no idea. All I know is they were headed south,” Lucky Carlo replied.

We were all silent. I glanced toward Mikey, whose face appeared pale. Lucky Carlo seemed to have sobered up, too.

Ray sighed. “Well, thanks for letting us know what you know.” He finally sat back down on the couch next to me. We were all still quiet.

What the fuck are we supposed to do now? Show Pony’s gone, possibly dead. We’re no closer to finding him than we are to finding Frank. Where do we go now?

“Is there a particular reason you guys wanted to find this guy Show Pony?” Lucky Carlo asked, politely this time. His dark brown eyes expressed empathy.

I lifted my head up to face him, glancing between Ray and Mikey first. “Well… We’re trying to find Dr. Death Defying. Angel told me to come looking for Show Pony since, as you said, they’re so close. So maybe he would have known where he is. But now… it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.”

“You’re trying to find Dr. Death?” Lucky Carlo asked with raised eyebrows.

“Look, I’ve heard it all before,” I said, feeling frustrated. “He’s the hardest person to find–I know. But–”

“Not _that_ hard.” Lucky Carlo cut me off.

Mikey looked over at him. “Do you know where he is?”

The gold-toothed man stared over at him. “As a matter of fact, I do.”

Ray, Mikey and I edged forward on our seats.

“So I’m the only one around with a radio receptor, that only captures signals within a 10-mile radius. That goes for a general transmitter as well. So…whenever anyone gets within that radius and sends a transmission, I know.”

Lucky Carlo had paused, with something hidden twinkling in his eyes.

“Go on…” Ray told him, keeping his eyes locked on Lucky Carlo.

“So two days ago, a transmission comes in… And it’s from none other than the doctor himself! It was pretty faint, but that means he must have been within 10 miles of here.”

“What did he say in the message?” I asked.

“Bluebird fell from the nest,” Lucky Carlo told us with a stare. “Here comes the rain.”

“What does that mean?” I questioned.

Lucky Carlo blinked. “What do ya think? Obviously, bluebird is your guy Ponyboy.”

“Show Pony,” Ray corrected.

“Whatever,” Lucky Carlo continued. “So what else does it mean that the rain’s a-coming?”

“So you’re saying Dr. D’s going after Show Pony?” Ray asked as he started tapping his fingers on his knees.

“That’s what it sounds like. I’m not certain where he is now, but he can’t be too far. And something tells me that something big is gonna go down. So if you guys do end up following the trail, be prepared for a fight.”

Ray looked over at me and Mikey. “What do you say, guys? Are we going after Dr. D?”

I looked back at Mikey. He looked as uncertain as me as his dark eyebrows frowned.

“Well,” I started, “How are we gonna find him?”

“You have the transmission recorded?” Ray directed to Lucky Carlo.

“Of course I do. I’d be an idiot to ever turn this thing off,” Lucky Carlo chuckled.

“Great. We can analyze this,” Ray responded. “Leya, give me your bag for a sec.”

I obliged, reaching behind me to get my bag. Ray fished out one of his gadgets, which looked like a plastic TV remote without any buttons, but just a small rectangular screen on it.

“We’ll have to go into the backroom to listen to the transmission. You guys wanna come?” he asked.

“I need to finish bandaging up her arm,” Mikey replied before I could get out a word. “You just relay the info back to me once you figure it out.”

Ray nodded. “Got it.”

He and Lucky Carlo got up to leave. Just past the counter where Lucky Carlo had mixed drinks, there was a secret doorway. The two entered into a dark space, their voices drowning out soon.

Mikey sat still, staring at nothing in particular. He still looked a bit pale. After a couple seconds, he glanced to the side and noticed me looking at him. He looked a bit flustered as he cleared his throat and turned so his body faced me.

“Um… so just rest your arm on the table. Uh…” he said as he looked around him quickly. “You know, it might be more comfortable if you sit on the floor. You can grab a pillow–he won’t mind,” he continued, referring to Lucky Carlo.

I stood up and picked up a lumpy pillow from the end of the couch. I placed it down and then sat cross-legged while putting my right arm onto the table. Mikey had sat closer to me, practically on the edge of the seat.

We met eyes, and the corner of his mouth formed into a smile. He then turned to the white box on the table, opening it and taking out his supplies.

He pushed his brown hair back from his face, tucking as much as he could behind his ears, but leaving a few strands resting on his temples.

“I’m gonna put this ointment on the scrape–it’s an anti-biotic, so you don’t get it infected,” he told me as he squeezed out a sheer gel from a packet. “Does this hurt?” he asked as he started to apply it to my arm.

“No, it’s fine,” I told him as I continued watching. The gel was a bit cold on my scrape, but Mikey was gentle with the application.

After that was done, he got out a roll of gauze and scissors. He held the roll over my arm, measuring the width of the scrape before he cut pieces of gauze.

It had been a while since I’d had to be taken care of like this. Of course, it had been a while since I got hurt like this.

“Why are you smiling?” Mikey asked, interrupting me from my thoughts. It wasn’t worded rudely, but he just seemed curious.

How do I begin?

I cleared my throat. “Oh, uh, I was just thinking…You kept your promise,” I told him.

He blinked, and I could see the question in his eyes. Apparently, bandaging me up wouldn’t ring a bell like my outburst from two days ago.

“A promise?” he asked as he put down the scissors on the table.

“Yeah,” I said, tapping my fingers on the table. “The last time we spoke…when we were all saying goodbye, you said that whenever the first sign of trouble showed, you’d be here to fix me, and well, you are…”

Mikey didn’t respond for a few seconds. He looked at me with his brown-green eyes, as if he was trying to see something in mine. Obviously, this made me uncomfortable, so I looked down.

“You don’t remember that, though…” I muttered.

Mikey started taping the gauze to my arm now. “I want to,” he replied.

I looked up to see him giving me a gentle smile. I smiled back.

“…so I did this often, then?” Mikey asked.

I nodded. “Yeah. A little too often,” I laughed.

Mikey smiled as he continued to tape the gauze to my wrist for the next two minutes. It was quiet except for the retro disco pop song playing in the room. Mikey and I met eyes, exchanging laughs at the absurdity of the music. I think it must have been the Bee Gees or something.

Once he finished taping up my wrist, Mikey stood up and suggested, “We should go meet up with them. Figure out more about this transmission from Dr. D.”

I nodded and stood up from my place on the floor. We walked in the footsteps of Lucky Carlo and Ray, behind the “bar” counter, and into the doorway behind it. After a short little corridor, we could see the two guys in a dimly lit square, with a complicated looking device with a ton of buttons and big speakers. They were sitting next to it. Ray had his device plugged into one of the sockets. I could see numbers rapidly numbering through on the lit-up screen.

Mikey knocked on the wall to let them know we were here. Ray looked up quickly.

“Oh, hey! You all patched up?” he directed to me.

“Yep,” I replied as I raised up my bandaged wrist for him to see.

“Good,” Ray answered with a smile. He immediately went back to work.

Mikey started walking forward towards Lucky Carlo, who had just pressed a button to replay the message. It was really crackly, but I could make out a few words like “bluebird”, “gas-man”, “the zones” of course, and just a few other words that didn’t really mean anything.

“Did you figure out the source of the transmission?” Mikey directed at Ray while he hovered over his shoulder, looking at the screen of the device Ray held in his hand.

Ray cleared his throat. “Just doing it over again to make sure it’s correct, but at the time of this transmission, Dr. D. was 6 miles southeast continuing on south. On the back roads, probably.”

“So you have any idea where he could be?” Mikey asked with crossed arms as he bit the edge of his lip.

“My guess is that they were heading towards my buddy Angel’s place. If they don’t get what they want from that Pony guy, and if Dr. D doesn’t show up in time, Angel’s gonna be in trouble.”

Ray looked over at Lucky Carlo. “So what do you suggest we do?”

Lucky Carlo sighed. “You guys want to catch Dr. D? Take the main road. Head back towards Angel. You might be a little behind since this was a few days ago, but that’s your best bet. You have a transmitter, so as long as you get within signal of Dr. D, you should be able to contact him.”

“So we’re backtracking?” Mikey asked with a hard gaze.

“It seems that way, man…” Lucky Carlo replied as he shrugged his arms.

Ray stood up, placing his hands on his hips. “So…are we all good on heading South tomorrow?”

Neither I nor Mikey answered right away.

“It’s the only lead we have to finding Frank, right?” I asked in return.

“Even if it isn’t, Dr. D’s had our back for so long. It wouldn’t feel right to be so close and not lend aid. At least, that’s where I stand. I’m not expecting you to be as gung-ho about this, Leya–”

“No,” I interjected. “You’re right. Even if we don’t get any closer to finding Frank, we should still help those that we can. I’m in.”

Ray looked over to Mikey. “Mikey?” he asked.

Mikey had been looking down toward the ground with his arms crossed for the past half-minute. He just looked up and answered, “You know I’m always in.”

Ray continued to stare at him carefully. “Mikey,” he repeated.

Mikey darted his eyes over to him. “What?”

“You know you don’t have to go along with this if you don’t feel comfortable about it…” Ray continued with a soft look on his face.

Mikey’s eyebrows creased. “Why wouldn’t I feel comfortable about it? I said I’m in, so I’m in.” He had ever so slightly raised his voice as he said this.

“Okay…” Ray returned, still maintaining his composure. “Just making sure.”

Mikey ran a hand through the side of his hair, looking away.

“So when do we leave?” I asked Ray.

He turned to me again. “I don’t know. When do you want to leave?”

“Well, shouldn’t we leave as soon as possible to make sure we don’t lose distance between us and Dr. Death?” I suggested.

“Well, I guess, but it’s already near sun-down. And anyway, we’re not going to get that much closer to Dr. D. if we leave right away as opposed to the morning or later tomorrow.” Ray put his hand under his chin, pondering.

“Yeah, I mean, you guys are welcome to stay here for the night,” Lucky Carlo added with a smile.

“Great, thanks!” Ray beamed.

“You know, maybe Leya has a point,” Mikey argued. “We’re already behind Dr. D’s tracks by a few days. There’s no telling how much farther he might get tonight.”

“You guys really want to go chasing down Dr. D and the BL/ind brute force in the middle of the night?” Lucky Carlo interjected with a condescending twitch of his eyebrow. “Tch! You know, you’re not as smart as you look…”

Before Mikey could verbally direct the boiling irritation inside him at Lucky Carlo, Ray cut in with a clap of his hands, “It’s settled then. We’ll sleep here, get rest, get ready to go tomorrow. We’re only human, guys. You can’t just be ‘on’ the entire time.”

Mikey and I nodded in response. Ray did have a point, I guess. Heading into a fight as tired as we were was probably not a smart idea.

I looked over at Mikey, and he was looking down, his hollowed cheeks looking pale. Something’s going on in that already-troubled head of his. Something serious.

We didn’t do much for the rest of the day. We were treated to lunch/dinner by Lucky Carlo, which were packets of what looked like astronaut food and boiled into noodle and vegetable soups. They weren’t too bad.

“Where did you get this astronaut food from?” Ray asked at the table.

“It’s not astronaut food–and I found it,” Lucky Carlo replied.

“You just happen to find _everything_ , don’t you?” Mikey asked with a glare.

Lucky Carlo returned the glare with a cheeky smile. “That’s why they call me Lucky Carlo!”

Mikey rolled his eyes at this.

After dinner, we went over “battle strategy”. We were going to take the main road, prepare for meeting up with the Zones patrol, and if we got down to the Black Widow before meeting up with Dr. Death, we’d meet up with Angel, get more information from him, and go from there.

It wasn’t a very well thought-out plan since most of what it contained depended on chance. But we have to keep moving if we want to get any closer to finding Frank.

After that, we decided to go to sleep. Mikey had brought an extra shirt and shorts for me to sleep in, so I didn’t have to sleep in my regular clothes.

“I’m sorry if they’re…if they might smell a bit,” he said with a sheepish look on his face. “We didn’t really have access to laundry detergent out there.”

I took the clothes with a grin. “Don’t worry about it. Thank you.”

I was able to change my clothes in Lucky Carlo’s bathroom, which was really just a small rectangle of space with a toilet and not much else inside. I was wearing red basketball shorts that reached down past my knees and a fraying black t-shirt with prints of wolves on it howling at a moon.

Lucky Carlo had a full-size bed that opened up from one of the walls–which everyone let me get despite my protests. Ray and Mikey were given the red velvet couches and a small blanket first. And Lucky Carlo was selfless enough to set up a bed for himself on the floor next to the couches. He isn’t such a bad guy once you get to know him.

But even with all the generous hospitality I was receiving, I didn’t sleep much.

I was woken up with the sound of something shuffling across wood. I opened my eyes and looked up. It was all dark except for the lamplight coming from Mikey’s place at the dining table. Mikey was the last one to go to sleep, sitting up next to the lamp reading an old book he found in Lucky Carlo’s lair. He hadn’t even changed out of his jeans and t-shirt. He was sleeping, head back, book still in his right hand at the middle of his chest. He appeared to be twitching and muttering something. No doubt, he was having a nightmare again.

I got up from the bed and cautiously walked over. Ray and Lucky Carlo were fast asleep in their spots. I’m not sure what I’m even doing right now, but I can’t let Mikey suffer alone like this again.

I approached the table, where Mikey’s hands had been twitching. I noiselessly went over to him and got the book out of his hands.

“No! I…can’t… Gerard!” he was whispering out. He still had his eyes closed and creased. He didn’t notice me being here.

I went forward and started to gently rub his forearm while whispering, “Mikey, it’s okay. You’re okay.”

At that moment, his whole body seemed to jerk and he made a loud gasp. It made me jump back, too.

“No, don’t take me there!” he continued to moan, looking like he was breaking into a sweat.

I couldn’t stand seeing him like this.

“Mikey, please wake up,” I said in a little louder than a whisper. I bent down and grabbed one of his hands with both of mine, gently shaking the top of his knuckles to try and stir him. “Mikey, you’re here with me, it’s alright–”

“Alicia?!” Mikey had gasped as he clasped his other hand over mine. His eyes were still half open, searching at my face.

In shock, all I could stutter out was “…uh–no, Mikey. It’s Leya. It’s me, Leya…”

“Oh. Uh…” he started as he looked back down, shaking his head. He let go of my hand, so I let go of his other one.

“I’m sorry,” he continued.

“It’s okay. You were just having another nightmare,"I told him with a friendly smile.

He looked straight at my face again. "I really am sorry.”

“No, don’t apologize, alright?” I told him. “I’m just worried that I scared you awake.”

“No, it was good that you woke me up. Was I screaming?”

I shook my head. “No, not yet.”

We were both quiet then. My cheeks were starting to burn from all the awkward.

“Well… You should get some sleep,” Mikey finally told me.

“You too,” I replied as I looked down. I swallowed. “Are you–are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Mikey replied as he shifted his eyes from the floor to my face. “…Thank you. Again.”

I nodded. “Yeah, you’re welcome.”

We were quiet again. I was still standing while Mikey was still sitting in that chair.

“I guess I’ll go to bed then,” I replied.

“Yeah, you should,” Mikey replied as he looked back down. I looked closely and could see that some of his hair was plastered on the side of his face from the sweat.

I started to turn but then stopped and faced Mikey. Still feeling flustered, I stuttered out, “Do–do you–Uh, I’m sorry if this is overstepping my boundaries, but…do you want to talk about it?”

I stood there waiting for an answer for what felt like an eternity. Mikey had just been staring at me for a few seconds and swallowed before saying, “I… I can’t.”

I looked down nodding. Of course it would be a little uncomfortable for him to talk to me about it.

“I understand,” I replied. “Get some sleep.”

I turned and went back to the bed I was borrowing. I turned my head back toward Mikey and could see him looking down toward the table as he stood up. Then he glanced my way, at which I immediately turned from.

The light was turned off a couple seconds later and I heard Mikey moving across the room, finally getting to sleep on one of the velvet couches.

My heart was still racing a bit so it was hard for me to fall asleep. There’s something going on with Mikey, but I can’t get through to him.

And I can’t stop replaying it in my head, that moment when I woke him up and he had clasped my hand. He had looked at me like I was someone else.

Just who exactly is Alicia?


	11. Chapter 11

The next day, we woke up pretty early and got dressed pretty quickly.

I decided to keep on the shirt that Mikey let me borrow, since I was tired of wearing my other shirt anyway. It was much to his amusement, anyway.

“You’re going to keep that on?” he asked me once we were ready to leave.

“Yeah,” I answered. “I mean, it’s a little bit lame with the wolves and all…” I giggled, “but it’s comfortable.”

Mikey just smiled at me without any words. I was glad that what happened last night–all the awkwardness, that is–didn’t really cross over into the morning.

Before we knew it, we were saying goodbye to Lucky Carlo.

“You guys take care of yourselves, okay? At least, you know, don’t get killed,” Lucky Carlo told us.

Ray smiled. “We’ll try not to. Thanks for all your help.”

“Yeah, thanks,” I added.

Lucky Carlo grinned, showing off his gold teeth. “No problem, guys. It was the least I could do in return for busting your arm.”

He looked past me at Mikey, who had his hands in his jacket pockets.

“I take it you’re just too filled with sadness, that you’re speechless about saying goodbye to me, eh?” Lucky Carlo joked.

Mikey let out a little annoyed sigh. “Thank you for giving us a place to crash.” He was wearing the aviator sunglasses, so I couldn’t tell what his expression was behind them, but it didn’t look friendly.

Lucky Carlo chuckled. “Well guys, if you can, let me know if you survive. And if you do, and you ever come across these parts again, shoot ‘ol Carlo a visit. It gets lonely being the only sane person up here!”

Ray laughed. “We will!”

Lucky Carlo smiled. “Good. I’ll let ya’ll get a move-on now.” He turned and started walking toward the garage door of his hideout.

We–well just me and Ray–waved as he pulled the garage door closed.

“So,” Ray started, “Are we ready?”

Mikey and I looked between each other and at Ray.

“I’m ready,” I answered.

“Yeah, me too,” Mikey added.

Just as the day before, I sat on the back of Mikey’s bike and Ray took out the Harley with the sidecar.

We drove onto the main highway under the bright late morning sun, getting out an hour before we reached the border between the 4th and 5th Zones. This part of the highway was split up so that the asphalt in each direction of the road was separated from hundreds of yards of desert. So this was like a one-way road.

From far away I could see that there were three boxes set up between the road with barbed wire fencing blocking the sides of the road for at least 300 ft either way. The spaces of road between each box were guarded by a crossing gate. The only way we were going to get past this border was to confront the BL/ind agents directly.

Remind me why we had to take the main route again…

Ray came close to us on the road. “Looks like we’re gonna have to bust our way through!” he yelled over the rumble of the bikes.

Mikey quickly looked over and glanced. “Yeah, I guess we have to!”

“I’ll take the one on the far left! You take the middle!” Ray yelled.

“What about the far right?” Mikey asked.

“We’ll worry about that later! Get your gun ready!” Ray yelled as he went ahead and got his out with one hand.

Mikey nodded and reached into his jacket, taking out his crimson ray gun.

As we approached closer to the border, one agent stepped out from the middle box. They had a sign that said “STOP”.

“Okay, we’re gonna do things a little differently,” Mikey told me as he put the gun back in its holster in his jacket.

“Mikey, what are you–” I started.

“Whatever you do, hold onto me tight!” he yelled before speeding up towards the BL/ind agent. The road and its lines started to all blur together for me. I kept my arms wrapped firmly around Mikey’s waist.

The BL/ind agent kept putting the sign out into the air as if we didn’t see it. But we did…and we were only getting closer. The BL/ind agent then took out a gun, dropping the sign.

“Brace yourself!” Mikey warned as he took his left hand off one of the handle bars to grab my left wrist and hold it tight. Just before we got near the agent, who was already shooting at us, Mikey punched the brakes, and swung the motorcycle to spin and skid in a circular motion to hit the agent, knocking him out.

I had slid a little bit, even with Mikey grabbing onto my wrist, but I was still okay.

“Get a taste of this!” I overheard Ray yell over by the left box.

Mikey continued to spin the motorcycle and drove it into the box.

“Ahh!” the BL/ind agent inside the window screamed. He had punched a button that started to send a glass window sliding down, but it was too late. The glass just broke and shattered while trying to force its way onto Mikey’s bike. Mikey reached out an arm and grabbed the agent by the shirt, forcing him out of the box and flinging him down to the road.

“Leya, get inside there and press the large blue button!” Mikey yelled back to me.

“Right!” I called back as I swung off of the bike the fastest I had these past few days.

Mikey sped off to finish off the agent and help Ray as I ran into the box, noting all these buttons on a large tablet. I finally spotted a blue marble-looking button. I punched it and immediately after it was followed by a “BUZZ” sound. The crossing gate in the middle was going up.

When I looked out again through the broken glass of this box, I only saw an agent coming toward me with a gun.

“Shit!” I exclaimed as I saw flashes of lasers coming in. I dropped to the floor, crouching in the corner, hoping they wouldn’t reach me.

Flashes of colored lasers hit the wall right above my head and broken glass rained down. Luckily, I was still wearing Mikey’s black helmet so the glass didn’t get to my head, but there has to be something here to defend myself with–

“Leya, hurry and get on!” I heard Mikey say just before I saw him coming through that section of road to run over the BL/ind agent that had been shooting at me. I let out a sigh of relief as I finally stood up and got out of the box. Mikey sped over and I hopped onto the bike with his help.

“Let’s get over the barrier before it closes again!” Ray yelled as he zoomed past us.

Mikey revved up the engine again to race across the border as well, but not without being tailed by two more agents on bikes.

Ray got near us again, so that our two bikes were in the middle of the road.

“Mikey, we’re being tailed–”

“I know!” Mikey hushed back.

“Fall back on my signal!” Ray said as he had his gun out.

The two agents were catching up behind us while they shot out their lasers.

“Ahh!” I had yelled out because a laser had scraped the side of my helmet, causing sparks to fly in my face. Luckily I had the visor on…

“Are you okay?!” Mikey asked as he turned back to me quickly.

“I’m fine!” I yelled. “But they’re coming up fast!”

The agents came up on their flashing bikes right next to us. There was one on Ray’s side and that’s when he yelled, “Mikey, now!”

Ray pressed the brakes, but Mikey didn’t.

“Mikey!” I yelled from behind him. He didn’t answer, and he was still going. The agents were coming on either side of us now with guns ready.

“Mikey!” I screamed again through my helmet as I purposely dug my nails into his skin.

He punched the brakes all of a sudden, causing us to lurch a little forward.

A second later, the agent on our left got hit with a laser and went down, crashing on his bike. In the next second, the agent on our right had his bike’s back tire blown out. Ray came up on that side and shot him in the heart. The agent slumped over his bike and swerved off to the side, finally falling over in the desert.

Mikey had his bike now at a soft rumble and I could hear him breathing heavily. He brought the bike to a screeching halt in the dirt on the side of the road. He flicked the parking brake and sidled off of the seat, immediately walking off into the dirt.

I ripped off the helmet I was wearing and let it rest on the seat.

“Mikey, are you okay?” I called after him as I swung my legs over to get off the bike.

He had walked over to where the last fallen agent lied next to their bike. He tucked his sunglasses into his shirt and took the gun from his jacket.

Mikey shot at the agent, keeping both hands gripped on his ray gun.

I flinched and stopped in my tracks. Ray had stopped really close to us just after Mikey stopped on the side, and he went running up to Mikey while flinging off his helmet.

“Mikey…” he started gently.

Mikey continued firing off shot after shot into the agent, creating more bloodshed. He had started gritting his teeth, looking a bit maniacal as he shot at the already dead body.

“Mikey, stop!” Ray had lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Mikey’s arms and chest, forcing him to lower his gun.

“Let go of me Ray!” Mikey shouted.

Ray didn’t let go, keeping his arms gripped around Mikey’s torso.

“I said let go!” Mikey shouted again, although he let his arms lower at his sides. “Let go, man…” he said through a choked up voice now. He had his head down, but I could see how red he was getting underneath his eyes, and the glistening coming from them.

“It’s okay, Mikey,” Ray told him with a soothing tone.

Mikey let his knees slump forward to the ground and he dropped his gun.

“No, it’s not…” he said through his tears.

I wasn’t sure what to do at this point. Ray knelt down and continued to hold Mikey as Mikey continued sobbing out. After several seconds, Mikey calmed down and started sniffing as he forced himself out of Ray’s grip and stood up. Ray stared after him with a concerned look. His eyes had started watering, too.

Mikey bent down to pick up his fallen ray gun and tucked it into the holster he had inside his jacket. He put his hands on his hips, not facing us. Finally, he turned around. “I can’t do this.”

“Do what, Mikey?” Ray asked.

Mikey swallowed before he spoke. “ _This_ , fighting agents, heading into battle against BL/ind–I can’t! I just can’t–” he started crying again, his voice cracking. “What if–what if the same thing happens again? But we can’t survive it?”

Ray started approaching Mikey, but Mikey dodged around him and started marching over to his bike as he anxiously put a hand through his dark hair.

“So, you want to call it quits?” Ray asked as he turned around to look at Mikey walking away. “Even after getting this far?”

Mikey turned around. “After getting 'this far’? We haven’t gotten anywhere! Show Pony’s probably dead! And how the hell are we supposed to even know where Dr. D is now? He could be dead too! And then we’re back where we started!”

Ray was silent for a while. “Okay.”

“Okay, what?” Mikey snapped back.

Ray kept his eyes on Mikey’s. “Okay, we’ll call it off and go home. Mikey, you’ve been like a little brother to me all these years, and I only want what’s best for you. So if you want to quit, Okay.”

“You’re both going to give up just like that?” I cut in. I was getting a bit pissed off. “What about Frank? Are we just going to give up on finding him?”

They both looked toward me, not answering right away.

“You’re gonna go back to your lives in that mobile home and be dead to the world while Frank is out there somewhere, struggling to survive–probably alone? Well I didn’t give up all the security I had just to go home once I was met up with a few obstacles! And I only knew the guy for a week and a half. Weren’t you all supposed to be like brothers?”

“Of course we want to find Frank,” Ray replied. “But if Mikey can’t handle it, I’m not going to put him through that kind of experience again.”

“Don’t blame it on me, Ray… If you want to go, then go,” Mikey muttered as he crossed his arms.

I turned to him. “Mikey, what about you? Weren’t you the one that was willing to give up everything to find Frank? How can you… how can you be scared of a little firefight?”

“Leya, stop…” Ray told me with a glare.

“No,” I said, getting closer to Mikey. He was looking at me with tear stains all over his face. It was painful to look at, but I had to prove my point. “The Mikey that I knew… he didn’t let any obstacles get in his way when it concerned rescuing Grace. He bit my head off for suggesting any kind of doubt when he wanted to go after Torque Tommy to find a way to fix the Trans-Am. He rushed without fear into that army of 30 agents when we broke out of the prison. Hell, he didn’t even let me die when my heart stopped–instead, he brought me back to life with the power glove. And then in Battery City, after bravely facing all the BL/ind security and SCARECROW agents, he fought until he got shot down saving Grace. So tell me, where is that Mikey now?”

Mikey had been looking at me with an increasingly fuming gaze during my little monologue.

“He died,” was what he finally replied with.

We both stared at each other for a few seconds. I felt a burning in my heart because I was so angry at him, yet he had summed up the very thing I had been feeling in my heart this whole time.

Ray approached us. “You two need to just stop–”

“Yeah, he did die,” I cut him off as I felt tears welling up in my eyes. “And all we have left of him is his ghost–who’s only half the man he used to be…”

Mikey’s eyebrows twitched at what I said last, and I could see a fire coming into his eyes as he continued to glare at me. “Look–I don’t know what Ray told you, but you have no idea what I fucking went through in Battery City! Have you ever had someone literally go into your brain and fuck everything up? Or how about the fact that I have these fucking night terrors every single night–and haven’t been letting Ray sleep for four months because I wake up fucking screaming every night!” He came closer to me, keeping his eyes fixed on mine. “When I told you I couldn’t talk to you about it, I was telling the truth. I can’t talk about it because I can’t remember the nightmares when I wake up. And you know why I can’t remember the nightmares? Because they’re pieces of memory I lost. Just like all the countless pieces of memories I’m missing. All I know is that the nightmare always ends up with me being cut open on an operating table and I can feel all the terror that I woke up with four months ago. All I remember about that night in Battery City is the sheer fucking horror that filled my head when I woke up inside that hospital. And it’s that horror that I relive every single night.”

I was quiet as I felt a tear start running down my right cheek. Mikey had been shaking as he said all of this. And I didn’t know what to say to all of that.

“If we get caught by BL/ind again, if we fall again… who knows what they’ll do to me this time? Or to all of us?” He had let tears start coming out of his eyes again. “My brother’s dead! I’m practically dead, too… I’m just lucky enough that Ray and Frank were there to get me in time to salvage whatever pieces of me were left.”

We were all silent for a while.

“Someone in SCARECROW was out to personally torture and destroy me but they didn’t get the job done. And if that person finds me again…” Mikey had been looking ahead of him with this stricken look of fear in his greenish eyes. “I can’t deal with that. I’m sorry, but I’d rather die alone in the desert than have to be subjected to that again.”

There was a minute of tense silence.

“So we’re going home?” Ray finally spoke.

Mikey turned to face his curly-haired friend. “No. Ray, you wanted to go help out Dr. D. And you’re right, we should be helping him out if we can. But I can’t. So go without me.”

“Mikey, I can’t leave without you,” Ray started with a sigh.

“Ray. Stop,” Mikey scolded. “You’ve been sacrificing a lot for me, too. And thank you for wanting to protect me, but I can’t be everyone’s little brother all the time. You and Leya, you should go find Dr. D. I mean, there is a slight chance that he can tell you where Frank is.”

Ray was quiet for a couple seconds. “Where will you go?”

Mikey made a sad smirk. “I’ll go home.”

I took in a deep breath. “Look, I know you probably hate me right now,” I directed to Mikey, “but I don’t want to split up. Didn’t we just say the other day how being separated is a bad idea?”

Mikey looked over at me with a creased brow. “I don’t hate you. And we’re not exactly being separated. I’m just going home.”

“Still… it doesn’t feel right,” I argued.

Mikey looked over at me and gave me this strange half-smile. “Leya, I may not know you very well–anymore–but I can tell that you’re a strong girl. Ha, you’re stubborn and you like to argue–but you’re also selfless and good-hearted. And you’re strong enough to make it on your own.” He made a soft laugh. “I can see why we were such good friends now.”

My eyes started watering again.

“Why are you crying? It’s not like it’ll be the last time you see me again,” he told me.

I answered, “That’s what you said the last time. And then… you died.”

He sighed. “What if I make you another promise? I promise you I won’t die until after I meet you again,” Mikey told me with a smirk.

“That’s a cheerful promise,” I muttered as I blinked away tears.

Mikey giggled. “But it’s a promise I’ll keep.”

He walked forward and brought a hand to my left shoulder, squeezing it. “Thank you,” he told me, looking directly into my eyes.

For what?

And then he laughed, “You always look surprised when I tell you that.”

“I guess it’s because I don’t know why you say it,” I explained.

“You know why,” Mikey told me with a grin.

He took his hand from my shoulder and turned toward Ray.

“So is this goodbye?” Ray asked.

“Just for now, Ray. Thanks for being my big brother,” Mikey said as his eyes started glistening again.

Ray went forward and hugged Mikey. Mikey wrapped his arms around Ray’s back in return and the two stayed like that for a few seconds.

When Mikey let go, his nose was rosy and tears were welling up in his eyes. “Kick a bunch of BL/ind ass for me.”

Ray sniffed, “You got it, buddy! And don’t forget the keys…” He reached into one of his jacket pockets to give Mikey a set of two small brass keys on a keychain.

Mikey took the keys into his jean pocket and then walked to his bike. He picked up the helmet from the seat and turned back toward me. “This is yours.”

“Mikey, just keep it…” I told him.

“No, you need it more than me. So here!” he tossed the helmet to me, which I clumsily caught. Mikey then swung his legs over the bike and put on the aviator glasses he had tucked in his shirt.

He revved up his bike and left down the stretch of road we had just battled upon. Ray and I watched him go until he disappeared from sight.

“Don’t worry about Mikey,” Ray told me. “He’ll be fine on his own. For now, we gotta focus on getting to Dr. D and rescuing Show Pony.”

“Right,” I nodded as I continued sniffing and wiping away the tears with the back of my hand.

“Well, now that we’re in Zone 5, we should send a transmission to Dr. D,” Ray told me as he started walking over to his Harley.

“How are we going to do that?” I asked as I followed.

“With our transmitter, of course,” Ray replied with a smile.

“Yeah, but how will we be sure that Dr. D will get it?” I asked.

“We just need to channel the transmission to the station 109.2. That’s the station that Dr. D sends all his transmissions on. It’s the way that any allies can communicate with each other, since we all just tune to this station.”

“That goes for enemies too, though, right?” I asked.

Ray was quiet for a few seconds. “I guess you’re right… But I guess that’s another reason why we always speak in code. You’ve heard Dr. D’s transmissions before, haven’t you?”

“A few times,” I answered as I saw Ray get the transmitter out. It looked like an old radio with two circular speakers and a small microphone coming out of the side, connected to a spiral black cord.

Ray turned on the transmitter with a switch so that a green light now flashed. He turned the dials so that the red line got to 109.2 on the tuner.

Ray then pressed a button. “We have liftoff from Jupiter! I repeat, liftoff from Jupiter!” Ray spoke into the microphone just before pressing the button again.

I raised an eyebrow.

Ray laughed. “It’s code… My Killjoy name was Jet Star, remember?”

I nodded.

“Well, any time I need to communicate that it’s me, I say 'we have liftoff’ like a jet plane, get it?”

I nodded again with a smile. “And the Jupiter part?”

“That’s code for Zone 5. So hopefully if Dr. D is in this Zone, or at least within 50 miles of us, he’ll get the message that we’re here.”

“50 miles?” questioned.

“Yep. That’s the radius of the radio satellite dish he has on the van,” Ray explained.

“Oh, okay…” I answered.

Ray smiled. “Come on, we got to keep moving toward The Black Widow. At least until we get some kind of reply on the radio.”

I nodded in accordance just before Ray walked over to pick up his helmet. Then we both got onto the seat of his Harley. There was a bit less room than on Mikey’s bike, but it was enough. My job was to listen for any transmissions since the motorcycle’s noise would drown out the speakers, so I had the radio tucked into my sweater with these large headphones plugged into it and on my head. I was holding the helmet by its straps on my left wrist.

Unfortunately, I heard nothing but static the whole drive. Within 45 minutes, we had already reached the Black Widow. It was still early in the day, so no one was there besides Angel probably.

Ray had stopped maybe a half a mile ahead of the Black Widow so we could get off and listen to the radio again.

“Did you get anything?” he asked me as he ran a hand through his curly hair. The motorcycle helmet he had on had matted it down so that it was flattening on top.

I shook my head. “No… Should we wait longer until we hear something?”

Ray looked ahead of him in deep thought. “Maybe we should just head over to the Black Widow. Maybe we can get more answers from that guy Angel. More importantly, we can figure out why he would send you out on a tip if he knew Show Pony wasn’t actually going to be in the town he mentioned.”

I had been wondering about that myself. Angel had even told me a bit about Show Pony in case I was going to ask questions from him. Why would he send me to Lucky Carlo’s? It wasn’t malicious, since he was nice enough to give me a place to stay and wasn’t a creep about it either…

“You’re right,” I told Ray. “Maybe we’ll get better answers this time.”

Ray and I left the bike in a secluded hilly part of the desert not too far from where we had stopped. I left my sweater here since it was getting too hot, but I kept my cinch bag on me.

We walked in silence for a few minutes, and we could see that the Black Widow wasn’t too far.

“What do you think happened with Mikey back there?” I asked Ray.

Ray looked over at me and then back forward. “That was the first time we’d run into BL/ind agents since that night in Battery City.”

“Oh,” I said as I looked down.

“I guess it was a little too much for him to take in,” Ray continued. “I still don’t know exactly what went down that night concerning Mikey, since Frank only told us so much about it. But the way Mikey had been acting since then…something tells me that it was traumatic. And you know, they say that people who have been traumatized, when they come across something that reminds them of what traumatized them, it can bring back a flood of memories or even cause them to mentally freeze up–like shell shock. I’m pretty sure that’s what happened to Mikey today.”

I didn’t answer right away. It made sense, since these were BL/ind agents we were fighting against. And the way that Mikey seemed to have just frozen and stopped responding to us for a minute. That and the nightmares… if only we knew what exactly happened to him or what went on in those nightmares.

As we walked along, I swallowed before asking, “Ray, who’s Alicia?”

Ray had stopped in his tracks while he looked over at me. He had sunglasses on, but I could tell it wasn’t a good look.

“I’m not so sure I’m the right person to be telling you that,” he told me in a grave voice.

“Why?” I questioned.

“I’m just not,” Ray sighed. “Where did you even find out about that name?”

I swallowed. “Last night… Mikey was having nightmares again and I was trying to wake him up and he woke up crying out that name.” I paused for a bit. “She’s someone special to him, isn’t she?”

Ray turned to me. “Like I said, I’m not the one you should be talking about that to.” He had given me a dark stare behind his sunglasses.

Okay, that subject is obviously off limits…which only makes me want to know more about it…

“We should leave all this talk for later anyway. We’re almost there,” Ray continued.

We had started coming up pretty close to the Black Widow. It was quiet out here. No cars were going by, no cars were parked by the bar, it was desolate. I led the way since I figured it would be better if I spoke to Angel first, seeing as we’re already acquaintances.

I walked up to the front entrance across the wooden porch. I tried to turn the aluminum doorknob on one of the double doors, but it wouldn’t budge. It was probably locked.

I glanced back at Ray before knocking my fists on the door as loud as I could without hurting myself.

“Angel! If you’re home, it’s me, Leya!” I shouted.

There was no response for at least half a minute. I started knocking on the door again continuously for about ten seconds. Then the door budged.

“Leya, go home!” I heard Angel’s voice tell me from behind the door.

“What–Angel, I need to talk to you!” I shouted.

“I already gave you answers. Now get on and go home!” Angel yelled again.

Was he being serious? He wouldn’t let me in?

“Look, I have a friend with me. We went up to Lucky Carlo’s and he told me all about Show Pony,” I said in a loud voice so he could hear me. “Now, you better explain to me why you would send me all the way up there if you already knew Show Pony was gone.”

I heard the door creak and feet shuffle behind the door.

“Leya, just go! You shouldn’t be here!” Angel yelled.

I creased my eyebrows in confusion. I glanced back at Ray to gauge his reaction.

“Look, the door’s opening!” he exclaimed.

I looked back to see the door indeed opening into the dark bar. I immediately pushed the door forward and walked in, ready to get some answers once and for all.

“Look, I’m not that mad, Angel. But I need to know–ugh!”

I had grunted because I felt something smack my left temple so hard, I was seeing spots and felt myself losing balance where I stood.

I tried to look up, but it was dark and everything felt like it was spinning.

“Leya!” I heard Ray yell. I also heard feet shuffling across the wooden planks.

“Ray…” I groaned out, noticing I was down on the floor now. Before I could get out another word, I saw a black boot coming my way.

Shit–


	12. Chapter 12

“Mmm,” I groaned out as I could feel myself finally waking up.

It was dark behind my closed eyelids. But even when I opened them, it was still dark.

I could see that I was inside the Black Widow, but only the lights above the pool tables were on. The rest was in shadow.

Once I remembered what had just happened and how I got here, I tried to get up from where I was on the floor. But I couldn’t move my arms, since each of my wrists was bound by a silicon cuff that linked to someone else’s wrists. I only noticed because it hurt around my bandaged wrist.

“Could you not pull so hard on that?!” I heard a female voice snap to me from my right.

“Leya, you’re awake! How are you feeling?” It was Ray who had whispered to me from my left. I turned my head quickly to face him.

“Ray, what happened? How did we…” I started as I turned toward him.

“Shh!” the woman on my left shushed me. “You want us to get beaten or killed?”

I creased my eyebrows in confusion.

“Ray what’s going on?” I whispered this time as I turned back to him.

“We were ambushed,” he told me. “As soon as you walked in, a couple of Dracs were right inside and they hit you pretty hard in the head. I was outnumbered and they would have shot you if I made any moves. So I had to surrender. It seems that the Dracs got wind of Dr. D coming after Show Pony and from what I’ve been overhearing, the whole thing with Show Pony was a ploy to lure Dr. Death over here. Only…”

“Only what?” I questioned.

“Only… Dr. D’s been MIA on the radiowaves for the past 2 days, and no one’s seen or heard from him.”

“But what about what Lucky–” I was hushed because Ray had clamped his hand over my mouth. One of the Dracs had been walking closer near us, eyeing us behind the hideous mask. After three seconds, he turned on his heel and walked the other way.

“Don’t say anything!” Ray whispered once the coast was clear. “They’ve been rounding up every Killjoy that’s come by the Black Widow, asking what each person knows about Dr. D. And the ones who didn’t know anything, well, we’re all chained up here.”

I looked around me, my eyes having finally adjusted to the darkness inside the bar. There were maybe twenty to thirty people sitting on the floor just like me–all of us cuffed and connected to the person next to them. There were four Dracs standing just ten feet in front of us and four more standing in between the pool tables. Near the front of the bar, I could see Angel sitting on a stool with two Dracs on either side of him with their guns aimed at his head. Just a few stools over, there was a guy with dark long hair slumping forward, wearing a bright red cut-off tank top and black leggings with no shoes on his bare feet. He was also guarded by two Dracs with their guns aimed at him.

“And the ones that do know something?” I asked in a whisper to Ray as I brought my eyes back to him.

Ray lowered his eyes. “No one here does.”

“I don’t get it. If no one knows anything, why did they keep us all here?” I asked Ray.

“They’re going to fucking kill us, that’s why,” the woman on my right muttered.

I turned around to face her. Now that I got a better look at her, she looked familiar. It was the brunette with blonde highlights, the wild-haired woman who was here at the bar when Caelan and I first tried to talk to Angel. The one who looked like she could beat me up with one arm tied behind her back.

I blinked at her. “Why do you say that?”

“Have you not been listening to your friend?” she told me with a bitter stare. “They kept everyone here who didn’t have anything to say about Dr. D’s whereabouts. As far as they’re concerned, we’re all lying about not knowing anything, so that’s why they’re not letting anyone go free. Well, unless you want to get shot dead. Like that poor bastard over there.”

The woman had nodded her head slightly to the right, where I could see a man lying face down on the ground. His back was riddled with burning holes.

I shuddered. “But why keep us alive at all?”

“To torture answers out of us,” she replied nonchalantly. “Poor Angel, he’s already been getting the worst of it–since he’s known for knowing about everything in these parts. He and Pony…I’m surprised Pony’s even alive still. God knows what those fuckers’ll do to them before Dr. D gets here.”

“How do they know that Dr. D will get here?” I asked.

“They don’t,” Ray replied. “They only assumed that Dr. D would come after Show Pony. But if Dr. D doesn’t get here by midnight, they’re going to get answers out of us, one way or another.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means you should kiss your pretty little head goodbye,” the woman on my right told me. “Because none of us are getting out of here alive unless Dr. D shows up.”

“Don’t listen to her, Leya. We’re gonna get out of this, somehow,” Ray told me as he reached for my left hand and squeezed it.

I made a smile at him. At least Ray seemed to be unharmed, which was a good thing.

“What time is it?” I asked him just a minute later.

“Well, the last time they informed us, it was 6 o'clock,” Ray told me.

“Already?!” I exclaimed in a whisper. I had been unconscious for that long…

“And that was a while ago…” Ray softly laughed. “When you pass out, you really do stay out, huh?” he told me with a slightly amused look on his face.

A few more hours passed after this conversation, although it felt like days. It was really awkward to be sitting here with the other Killjoys while the Dracs were pacing back and forth just 15 feet away. Apart from the occasional murmurs, there was only silence. It was already 9:30 and still no sign of anyone crossing these roads except for a few unfortunate killjoys that got taken as hostages along with the rest of us.

“So what happens if you need to use the bathroom?” I asked Ray.

“Why don’t you try it?” the woman on my right sneered. “I’m sure if you just ask, they’ll definitely take off the cuffs and let you take a piss.”

I narrowed my eyes at this. She didn’t have to be so rude about everything…

“Seriously, though, I need to go to the bathroom,” I told Ray. And fucking hell, I really did…

“It doesn’t hurt to try. Hey!” he called out to the Dracs to get their attention. “She needs to use the bathroom!”

Two of the Dracs turned around to face us.

“So?” one of them replied.

“So let her use the bathroom,” Ray told them.

The Drac laughed behind his mask. “How stupid do you think I am? There’s no way I’m uncuffing any of you. She can urinate in her pants for all I care.”

“Look, I really need to go!” I yelled out this time.

He aimed his gun at me. “Shut your trap! You’re not going anywhere!”

“What are you gonna do if I don’t?” I shot back with a lift of my left eyebrow.

The Drac chuckled again. “So you want to die today, eh?” he asked as he sauntered up closer with his gun aimed at me.

“Hey, why don’t you leave her alone? She’s just a kid!” To my surprise, it was the woman on my right who suggested this. She was giving the Drac a vicious stare with her green eyes.

“Yeah, just let the damn girl take a piss!” A man had yelled from down the line of all the sitting Killjoys. A flurry of insulting jeers in my favor followed. This agitated the Dracs.

“You all better shut up before we start firing off!” one of the other Dracs threatened.

“Then go ahead and shoot, you bloody cowards!” I heard another man yell. Hmm, a British accent this far out?

“Don’t doubt the gravity of the situation you’re in, you wretched excuses for mankind,” spat another one of the Dracs guarding. “If you’ve forgotten, you’re all chained up and weaponless. And there’s five of us right here, all with guns ready to shoot and end your miserable lives.”

“Then why are you still talking?” the woman to my right had sneered.

“Because they’ve got nothing!” It was Angel who had yelled across the bar. He had stood up from his seat, with his captors still having a hold of his shoulders. “Why do you think they’ve kept us all alive for so long? Why Pony and me are still alive? They got nothing. They don’t have a clue where Dr. D is, and they’ve got no way of controlling us other than to try and place our lives on the line. Face it, no matter how hard you try, you’ll never get rid of us! Even when you come into the desert with your small band of agents and hijack my bar, you’re still no closer to stopping us. You know why? Because Killjoys never die!”

“That’s enough out of you!” one of the Dracs holding him had sneered as he sent his gun swinging into Angel’s face.

Angel was laughing as he picked up his bleeding head. “That’s the best you can do? Face it, guys… your oh-so-powerful government, your ‘perfect’ society… It’s all gonna come crashing down sooner or later, and we’ll all be there to watch it burn.”

“I said that’s enough!” We all watched as Angel got hit again. He looked like he had already gotten a few good beatings all day.

“Face it… You’re not killing anyone else before midnight, so you might as well let the girl use the bathroom,” muttered the guy sitting not too far from Angel. Who I now assume is Show Pony… He was sitting in his stool, probably too weak to move, with the way he looked slumped over there.

“Well, well… Dr. Death’s pet decided to finally wake up,” sneered one of the Dracs that was closer to us.

“And what makes you say we’re not going to kill anyone else before midnight?” asked one of the Dracs that was guarding him. He raised his ray gun and pointed it close to Show Pony’s chest. “We can just put you out of your misery right here, right now.”

“Then why don’t you go ahead and do it?” Show Pony growled as he grabbed the ray gun pointed at him and shoved it against his throat.

The Dracs around him seemed flustered and just stood around.

“Come on! I’m already halfway to death, just bring me there already!” he yelled as he kept the barrel of his gun pushed into his throat. The Drac holding the gun pulled away, but Show Pony wrestled the gun out of his grip.

The other Dracs around there all surrounded him with their guns.

“Hahahaha,” Show Pony started laughing and shaking his head. “Tell me, gentlemen–what is the point of surrounding and pointing guns at someone who already has a gun pointed at their throat? Hahahaha!” He was getting red in the face from how hard he was laughing.

The Dracs surrounding him looked between each other then, and lowered their guns.

Show Pony subdued his laughter. “Now…you’re going to let that girl use the bathroom, or I’ll shoot my head off right here and now.”

What the hell?! Okay, I didn’t need to use the bathroom _that_ badly!

“What makes you think we care if you shoot yourself or not?” sneered one Drac.

“Well,” started Show Pony with a cheeky tone, “if I’m dead, Dr. D’s gonna be very, very, _very_ pissed off! And if I’m dead, you got nothing to bargain with. Hell, at that point, he’s not gonna care if all these other people go down in flames with the rest of you! I’m not so sure you guys want to mess with him when he’s pissed off–and believe me, I know.”

The Dracs didn’t respond to that.

“So,” continued Show Pony, “You can choose to keep everyone here and I’ll kill myself–oh, and I know you’re not gonna kill anyone before midnight because then you won’t have as much bargaining power–or…you can let that girl use the bathroom to relieve herself and, you know, I’ll stay alive and kicking for a few more hours. Well, not so much with the kicking–thanks to you–but you get what I mean.”

The Dracs looked at each other and immeditately formed into a huddle. The rest of us were just watching.

When the Dracs came out of their huddle, one went forward to Show Pony. “Alright, you have yourself a deal. You are much better use to us as a half-dead bleeding bait. Just know that as soon as Dr. Death Defying gets here, your time is up!”

“I’m shaking in my bones,” Show Pony replied as he kept the gun pointed at his throat.

The Drac that just spoke turned around to face all of us. “Get that girl out of the cuffs and take her to the bathroom! But just her! No one else! And make sure no one tries anything funny!” The Dracs nearest us started forward towards me.

They’re actually going to get me out of my cuffs! Now I can try something, anything to escape or fight back–but there’s still too many Dracs… and they all have guns… Oh, come on… Think, think, think…

I looked toward Ray and we met eyes. “Just go. Don’t try and do anything heroic right now,” he told me in a whisper.

I nodded my head as the Dracs finally came up to me. They bent down and started uncuffing the link between me and the woman on my right. She was glaring at them the entire time. After that was done, and my right arm was free, the Dracs forced me to get out of the line so they could cuff Ray and the woman together. After that, they undid the link on my left arm. Now I was free to stand.

“Get a move on!” one of the Dracs sneered at me as he shoved my shoulder.

I turned around to glare at them–but shit. I reached toward my back. My bag! It’s not on my back anymore! How did I barely realize that now? And where the hell is it?

“Well come on!” they started shoving me again.

“Where’s my bag?” I retorted.

“It’s gone! Now hurry up and use the toilet, you spoiled little rat!” A Drac on either side of me grabbed my arms and practically dragged me away to the small bathroom of the Black Widow.

Once we were inside, they pushed me toward one of the bathroom stalls. I pushed the door open and went ahead inside, closing the door behind me. The Dracs were standing just outside the door. It was the most awkward thing ever to be peeing here with them just a couple feet away.

I was just about done when one of them started banging on the door harshly while shouting, “Get out of there, already!”

“Hold on!” I shouted back. This may be the last fucking time I ever even get to use a toilet and these assholes are rushing me?!

I was flushing the toilet and pulling up my pants when an idea came to me.

“Are you finally done in there? Get out!” a Drac yelled at me again.

“Why don’t you make me?” I jeered from inside the stall.

“We’ll break this door open if that’s the only way we’ll get you out!” I heard the second Drac say.

“If you’re so tough, come in, then!” I taunted as I edged to the left side of the stall.

“Alright, Steve, stand back,” the first Drac told his partner.

I heard the footsteps, and once I felt the Drac pushing all his weight against the door, I quickly swiped the lock open, letting his body tumble through. But before he could get too far, I took a hold of the door and started to repeatedly close it on his head.

“Jeff!” his partner yelled as he came forward. Jeff was down on the ground, probably unconscious, since he wasn’t moving anymore. I leaped onto the toilet seat, facing the door, waiting for Steve to come in.

He had his ray gun raised, but before he could shoot at me, from my balanced stance on the toilet, I grabbed onto the top of the sides of the stall and swung my legs toward his throat, knocking the ray gun out of his hands while pushing him back a little. I jumped down and sent another kick into his chest.

“I’ll get you!” Steve yelled as he tried to swing a fist at me.

I ducked and kicked a foot into Steve’s crotch.

“Ahh!” he screamed in a higher pitch. It was a low blow, but there was no room for good sportsmanship here.

I went forward, seeing as Steve was bent down, and grabbed his shoulders, sending my knee into his stomach. Once I let go of Steve again, he bent lower to the ground, so I darted behind him and pushed him into the stall with Jeff.

I ran up into the stall and sent another boot into his chest. He fell back and hit his head against the toilet bowl. He didn’t get back up. Out of breath, I tentatively went forward and grabbed the mask off of him to make sure.

Sure enough, behind the mask was a normal looking adult caucasian male with light brown hair, his eyes closed and his face bruised. I looked back toward Jeff, who was still on the ground. I would pull his mask off too, but considering he didn’t help his buddy out the entire time I gave him a beating, I’m guessing he’s out cold.

What to do now? We weren’t exactly discreet with the noise. Anyone could be coming in now.

I skipped over Jeff out of the bathroom stall and picked up the ray gun I had knocked out of Steve’s hands. It was shaking in my trembling hands.

Now just what the fuck was I supposed to do? I can’t save everyone on my own, there’s about 10 Dracs in there.

I slowly opened the door to the bathroom. It was on the more shadowy side of the stage, so no one even noticed I had opened the door. I’m surprised they didn’t come barging in with all the noise I must have made beating up on those two Dracs. I looked sharply to my left. The EXIT sign. Maybe that could–

“It’s about time you got out of there,” I could hear one of the Dracs say.

It only took me half a second’s delay to react. I rushed with all the speed I could towards the EXIT door down the corridor next to the stage. I didn’t even look behind me. I couldn’t hear anything. All I knew was that my heart was beating so fast.

The door made a loud sound as I pushed all my weight against it to get out. It was nearly pitch black as I got out, smelling the desert air in what felt like a long time. As my eyes adjusted, I could see that there was a chain link fence keeping me from getting out. I could hear the footsteps of the Dracs from inside the bar coming after me.

Keeping my focus forward, I noticed there was a shadow of something large right next to the fence. I could use it to hoist myself over the fence. I think.

I ran towards the big thing, realizing it was a garbage dumpster. My knees and shoes clanged against the dumpster as I clambered atop it. Once I did so, I could see a faint beam of light shining on the dumpster.

“Get her before she escapes!” I heard one of the Dracs yell. There were three of them coming after me now, shooting their ray guns at me.

I turned around, took a gulp, and leaped a few feet across onto the fence. I clung onto it with my skinny fingers, feeling the cold steel bending against my weight. I climbed to the top, seeing the flashes of lasers from my peripheral vision. I was clumsily getting one of my legs over the top when I felt something burn my right shoulder.

I gasped and accidentally let go of the fence. Fuck, fuck fuck…

I dropped to the ground with a thud, landing on the dirt with my hip as support. But hey, I was on the other side!

The lasers were still coming my way, so I scrambled to my feet and started running. I don’t know where I’m running, I don’t see anything–and shit, that shoulder stings! Did I get shot? Is that what it feels like?

I tried to look as I ran, but it was dark, and I was moving too fast to make out anything.

All of a sudden, light blinded me.

I put my arms up in front of my face, feeling the burn in my shoulder again, and I could see that it was a car’s headlights shining at me. The Dracs got out from the car.

“Throw the gun on the ground!” one of them yelled at me.

I didn’t do as told. I didn’t want to listen. I wanted to just disappear. I wanted to be home. Wherever that even existed anymore…

Two Dracs rushed at me and snatched the gun out of my hands while tangling my hands behind my back to re-cuff them. Their rough grips grazed the affected scrape on my right wrist. I grimaced as I tried to fight back tears of frustration.

I was walked back through the dirt–rushed is more like it–back into the Black Widow. More lights were on now, and I could see all the Killjoys in an uproar at the other end of the bar. The Dracs pushed me towards the center between the pool tables, close to where Angel and Show Pony were being held.

“We’re going to make an example of you,” I heard one Drac say as he forced me down to my knees. “This is what happens when you break the rules.”

I couldn’t see it, but I’m pretty sure he had a gun aimed at my head.

“Don’t!” I heard Angel yell from behind me.

“What makes you think protesting will have any influence on us?” another Drac laughed.

I felt a gun on the back of my head now. I tried to look forward, to try and see Ray. If this is it…

“I’ll tell you where Dr. D is!” Angel roared. “Just don’t do this!”

The Drac retreated and moved the gun from my head.

“If you’re stalling in any way, not only will we kill this girl, but we’ll start killing the others,” the Drac closest to me said.

“No! I’m not stalling,” Angel continued. “I know exactly what routes Dr. D is taking. I’ll tell you–if you just leave her alone.”

I heard the second Drac who spoke walk toward Angel. And then I heard some murmurs. They must have been whispering.

“We’ll send our forces out that way, then,” the Drac finally said in a normal volume. “If they aren’t back here with Dr. D by midnight, we’re gonna torch this place.”

“How can you–” Angel started to protest.

“We’re already doing you a favor! Now, you can let us kill the girl now or you can give yourselves a chance by waiting 2 more hours and 14 minutes, by my calculations,” the Drac said as he looked at the watch on his left wrist. “If what you say is true, then our forces should find Dr. D and be able to bring him back within that time. If not, then you and everyone else here will die. Starting with the girl.”

I felt an extra sting in my heart at that last phrase. Great. Now my death is just going to be prolonged by 2 more hours.

I felt someone yank me up harshly.

“Get over here!” I was yelled at while I got dragged to sit on a stool just two places over from Show Pony. He looked pale as he stared at me. I feel bad that he went through all that trouble just to let me use the bathroom, and now I’ve ruined my own chances–all of our chances–just because of my stupidity.

2 more hours.

This time, the quiet was even more stifling. No one made a sound. Nothing at all. I could just hear swallows from people’s throats, including my own.

“11 o'clock,” boomed one of the Dracs near me.

One more hour.

I decided to get a good look at Show Pony, now that he was next to me. He was wearing leather ankle-length leggings. I glanced down toward his feet, seeing that they were stained in streaks of blood, with red drops splattered on the wooden floor beneath his stool. It led me to believe that what was shining on his legs may have not just been leather. He had bruises on his arms and on his face. Under his eyes, it was dark purple against sallow skin.

“You know, if you take a picture, it might last longer…” he weakly croaked out.

I jumped at having had him notice me.

“Of course, can’t remember the last time we were in possession of any camera…save the one that Grace always used to carry with her when we found her…” he continued.

“Grace?” I asked. “You mean the little girl that was with–”

“Yep, that’s the girl,” Show Pony said as he nodded his head. He turned toward me again. “How do you know about her?”

“It’s kind of a long story, actually…” I started.

“Hey! This isn’t gossip hour. Now shut up and be quiet!” a Drac in between me and Show Pony scolded.

“Or what?” Show Pony asked with a glare as he lazily jerked his head to a tilt toward the Drac. “I’ve been having you guys tell me you’re gonna kill me for days, but lo and behold, I’m still alive–unfortunately.”

“Just…shut up!” the Drac angrily retorted.

Show Pony quietly laughed.

I smiled at this. “Thanks for doing what you did back then, you know, making them let me go to the bathroom. I’m sorry all I did was manage to get into an even bigger tangle…”

“You’re welcome. And hey, if I was able to walk, I would have done the same thing as you,” Show Pony told me.

We were quiet again after this. The Dracs did their routine switching, except for the ones stationed by me, Show Pony, and Angel. I looked toward Ray again, wondering if he thought of any way of getting out of this.

The air was hot and tense. And even worse for me, I was cuffed with my arms behind my back, so I couldn’t even adjust the way I was sitting without wobbling over. I kind of wanted the end to come just to make this horrible waiting stop.

“11:30!” the Drac boomed again. “Startin’ to get nervous yet?”

“Leya, you shouldn’t have come back here,” I could hear Angel tell me a few minutes after that last announcement.

“Well how was I supposed to know this was going to happen?” I answered, not able to even see Angel. At this point, the Dracs stopped trying to stop us from talking.

“That’s just it… you should have known… The tip I gave you, it was so you could get out of here. So you would know where the trouble was–to avoid it!” Angel grumbled.

“You know I’m a stubborn girl, and you know what I was after. I knew where the trouble was, I just didn’t know it would be here before me…” I answered.

Angel sighed. “You know, I was even counting on you not being able to get that far. You’ve surprised me, indeed.”

“You should stop being surprised and impressed with women who actually get what they’re after,” I told Angel.

I heard him chuckle in response. “If we get out of this, believe me, I will…” he returned.

A few more minutes passed in silence. The Dracs had been announcing the time at each half hour. Now it was only a matter of several minutes before we found out our fate.

Even the Dracs were getting anxious, pacing back and forth in smaller circles, faster and faster. If there was anything Dracs took delight in, it was killing Killjoys. And that’s the difference between BL/ind agents and Dracs: BL/ind agents act more like robots, they’re more like the lower level flunky of a boss in a video game. And Dracs, well Dracs have a bit more personality to them, although they’re obviously controlled by SCARECROW. So instead of just automatically dispatching of their targets and doing what they’re told like the BL/ind agents, they take a bit of joy in doing what they’re told. Sometimes, they might even question the order, or carry things out a bit differently, but in the end they’re all like attack dogs, ready at the command of their owners.

It had felt like another hour passed before a few of the Dracs finally met up in the middle between the pool tables and the stage, and they started whispering between each other.

The main Drac–the one had been the one who negotiated the terms of Angel’s info bargain–finally spoke:

“It is now 11:58. Two minutes for my forces to get here. Two minutes to save your miserable lives.”

At that, a lot of murmuring went on between the Killjoys that were on the ground. I looked toward Ray and he was looking toward me with concerned eyes. And before long, a loud beeping sound went off. It was coming from the watch of the Drac who had just spoken.

“Well, would you look at that! Midnight. No Dr. Death Defying. You know what that means…”

He signaled with a snap for two of his buddies to go outside. I assume that they were checking for the backup forces and Dr. Death Defying.

“Gentlemen!” he boomed toward the Dracs who were near the Killjoys. Two of them stayed guarding them while the rest went to the side of the stage.

What the hell were they planning now?

The main Drac turned back and motioned at me with his palm in a “come here” motion. The two Dracs on either side of me grabbed each of my arms and dragged me towards him.

“I can’t decide whether to kill you mercifully or to kill you with the others…” he said as he looked down at me.

“You leave her alone!” Angel yelled.

“Keep quiet! We already went through this. No Dr. Death, the girl dies. End of story.”

Angel was struggling in his stool as the Dracs on his sides restrained him.

“Tell you what; I’ll let you choose,” the Drac told me. “How would you like to die?”

I just glared at him and then struck one of my knees out, hitting what I intended to.

“Grrr!” the Drac growled as he crouched down, grabbing at his crotch. “She dies with the others! Slow and painful!”

I heard Show Pony chuckle behind me while I got shuffled off and shoved to the floor right back next to Ray and the wild-haired woman.

“You sure got a lot of nerve, kid,” the woman told me. It sounded like an insult, but at the same time I sensed a bit of admiration.

I heard a weird noise from my left and shot a look over to see the Dracs spilling gallons of gasoline over the Killjoys.

The two Dracs that had been scouting outside came back. “Lenny, there’s no one outside. Our forces haven’t come back yet,” one of them reported.

Lenny was the one who was doubling over, and who finally stood up straight. “Well, they must still be searching for Dr. Death, then. Let’s not waste anymore time and get rid of these vermin once and for all.”

At that point, a couple Dracs had come over and started splashing gasoline over me and Ray and the woman. It was cold and got all over my hair.

“You know, if you hadn’t said anything, I might have been able to die by being shot. But no…now we’re gonna be burned alive!” the woman yelled at me. Guess I was still not in her good graces…

“This can’t be the way it ends. There’s more of us than them!” I shouted. “Ray, come on–we can’t go out like this. We can’t just leave Mikey alone like that…and you know what, he made a promise to me–hell, we all made promises to see each other again! This can’t be the end!”

“Leya, relax! We’re not gonna let it end like this,” Ray told me in a calm voice.

“Oh, you’re not?” I asked in surprise.

“No. And you know what, I think now’s the time that we finally took a stand. Killjoys!” Ray shouted out.

At that, there was a mass standing up from everyone who was linked in cuffs. Everyone except me, that is, who couldn’t exactly stand up.

“What are they doing?!” exclaimed one of the Dracs near us.

All of the Killjoys were standing now, looks of pure determination on their faces. In unison, they each took a step and started advancing forward.

“Never mind what they’re doing–torch them now!” Lenny the Drac shouted as he balled his fists in agitation.

“Alright!” four of the Dracs had Zippo lighters flaming and ready as they threw them down toward the gasoline-soaked ground near us.

“Killjoys never die!” was the mass chant as the literal wall of Killjoys started at a synchronized run toward the Dracs, knocking down the ones nearest us by using the links on their arms.

“Fine, you want me to shoot you, then I’ll shoot you! Fire on them!” Lenny shouted as the rest of his team raised their ray guns.

Oh no… This is only gonna end in–

CRRARRARRARRRRRCCCCCCCCCCCCK!!!!

It sounded like the earth had just shattered and bits of wood and dust had started flying everywhere in front of my vision. I couldn’t see Dracs or Killjoys and the growing fire behind me only made it worse.

I heard a bunch of screams and yells and a rumbling sound–like an engine. Once the dust started to clear, I could finally make out–a van? That had crashed into the bar?!

*PEW*PEW*PEW*

I could see lasers darting in different colors in front of me. I decided to get to my knees and try and stand up. Once I looked behind me, I only saw the burning stage about to fall at any moment.

“Oh no,” I shuddered out as I tried shuffling away. But the gasoline trail on the floor had spread the flames around me.

Fuck, I was trapped unless I could stand up!

I looked toward the chaos, seeing bodies in colored fabrics obscured by the increasing smoke. Even if I tried to scream right now, what are the chances that anyone would hear me above their own?

My heart started racing–I don’t know if it was harder to breathe because of the smoke, but I was in full on panic-mode.

“Help!” I tried to scream as loud as I could with my dry throat, still on my knees, still not quite strong enough to stand up.

The flames were spreading farther throughout the bar. And I could only see shadows in between the orange haze. But one shadow started getting bigger–it was the shadow of someone coming towards me–someone with a ray gun.

Before I could make sense if it was friend or foe, whoever it was bounded forward and swooped their arms around me, dragging me up off of the ground, rushing me over the flames. I was pressed against this person’s chest, so all I could make sense of was their jacket, which looked like red leather.

We were going into the fray, amid all the smoke and splinters. I was getting shoved in between all the bodies and–ow!

My face had hit the floor…no, the floor of the van… which was carpeted with cheap shaggy brown carpet. I was in the van, but facedown, still cuffed.

I turned my face on the ground, looking for whoever got me here. “Hey, whoever the hell you are, would you mind not just fucking throwing me inside a van face-first?!”

“Is that any way to thank someone who was too busy saving your ass from burning alive to worry about your face?” was the response as my 'savior’ hopped into the van as well. Against the fire from the outside, this person was a complete shadow to me.

Except they had an all-too familiar voice.

“Mikey?” I exclaimed as I tried to get up–with no luck as the van was in motion and swerving. It looked like now we were driving back out of the bar. I could hear chants and yelling once again.

The van finally came to a stop and my savior finally came closer to me, kneeling down.

“Nice to see you, too, Princess,” Mikey said as he reached around to help me sit up. He was wearing his old red jacket–the one with the Kobra insigna on it. And his dark brown hair was pushed back from his forehead a bit, but messily flopping towards his right temple, resembling the Mikey I used to know. It was like seeing Kobra/Mikey version 2.0.

My eyes widened. “How the–when the–Mikey just–what–what the fuck?” I stuttered.

He made a small laugh. “I’ll explain everything later. You just stay here while I go help the others.”

“But–” I started, as he jumped out of the van again. I looked around me and it was kind of dark in the van, with no lights on except for the ones at the dashboard. I looked toward the front to see who was driving, but all I could make out was a helmet and blonde hair coming out of it.

It finally started quieting down, and after a minute, Ray and Mikey literally jumped into the van.

“Leya, you’re alright!” Ray exclaimed as he grabbed the sides of the van door to steady himself to a sitting position.

“Yeah, no thanks to you,” I glared. He had completely just abandoned me in there while he and the rest of the Killjoys went all gung ho in there.

“Sorry about that…it was just kinda gettin’ crazy in there… But everyone’s alright!” Ray replied with a wide smile as he reached up and pulled on a chain to turn on a lightbulb hanging from the roof of the van. He was looking all dirty with soot all over his face and neck, coated in gasoline.

Mikey was crouching on the van floor holding a lever down. A few seconds later, a man in an electric wheelchair came zipping up a ramp onto the van–with Show Pony lying across his lap.

“Everyone on board?” the driver at the wheel asked. It sounded like a woman.

“All aboard! Mikey, get the lever!” the moustached man in the wheelchair ordered as he spun to one corner of the van.

The ramp was making a whirring sound as it went back into the van, and then Mikey shut the van’s sliding door before sitting back down.

For a few seconds, we were just all looking at each other: me sitting here cuffed in the corner, Ray crouching next to me, Mikey crouched near the middle, and then the guy in the wheelchair with Show Pony lying there looking barely alive.

I closed my eyes.

I need a moment.

But I’m alive.

But what the hell _is_ my life?


	13. Transmission 2

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@@@#%$%

  
##I think I finally got a handle on this thing##

  
####Now that it’s nighttime, things are a bit safer–####

  
####It’s quiet.

  
That’s nice.

  
#####Ugh, God…@#@#

  
##so it seems like no one got my last transmission or##

  
###or maybe no one was able to get here#%@$

  
It’s okay. Even if I’m just talking to dead static, I’m still alive#^#%$#ou can call it that..

  
###You know, I can hear the ocean#@#@//

  
###and I don’t think it’s me being crazy for once, heh//#

  
###Although going this long without a cigarette makes me want to pull my fuckin’ hair out 23 hours out of the day###

  
//The ocean…that means there’s water//

  
####which means I can still live for another 7 days, or whatever fucking time limit you have to live on wat#####

//////////////I’m starting to think#####

  
###I’m starting to####

  
#### maybe this was a mistake###################


	14. Chapter 14

The van was off at a high speed again, jolting us all back to attention.

The man in the electric wheelchair adjusted himself against the now-closed door of the van.

“Clear up the floor! We gotta get Pony cleaned up before the tetanus kicks in!” he commanded as he held onto Show Pony.

“Oh great, tetanus…” groaned Show Pony as he let his head stretch backward. “Why don’t you just kill me now?”

At this point, I figured that the burly man with the bandana and the beard and mustache was the famed Dr. Death Defying.

Mikey and Ray started clearing up all the junk that was on the floor of the van. Mikey was bent on his knee, pulling down what looked like a padded cot. He then laid it out onto the middle of the van’s floor, waiting for Dr. Death to rest Show Pony’s body onto it.

Since I couldn’t really move from where I was, I just crawled backwards into a corner of the van.

“Leya, how are you? I know you got a bit roughed up out there,” I heard Ray tell me.

I looked to my left and up at him. “I’m fine… I just really want to get out of these cuffs!”

He looked around him, scratched at his beard and then finally pointed toward Mikey’s feet. “Mikey, get me the bull-cutters!”

Mikey looked down, then slid the bull-cutters–that were right next to his feet–across the van’s carpeted floor over to Ray.

“Here, turn around,” Ray told me as Mikey attended to Show Pony.

I turned around as efficiently as I could, and then I felt the cold steel of the bull cutters hook under the small gap of the cuffs.

“Now, just stay as still as possible. I don’t want to cut off your wrists,” Ray told me

“What?” I asked in a panic.

*CLINK*

The cuff on my right wrist fell apart around it. Ray moved onto the left wrist and cut that one, too. I moved my arms toward the front of my body, feeling a lot of tension finally released.

“Thank you, Ray,” I said as I could finally use my hands as well as my legs to sort of stand up and settle down by the van.

“Before I forget,” he started in reply while bending one of his arms back. He was taking a bag off of his back…my bag!

“I remembered to pick this up before it caught on fire,” Ray continued.

I could feel my whole face brighten up. “My bag!” I exclaimed out loud as I reached out for it. Once Ray handed it to me, I opened it up to make sure the power glove was still in there. It was. But there was also another surprise.

“Ray…!” I exclaimed again as I pulled out a white ray gun.

Ray chuckled. “One of the Dracs dropped it. I figured it was about time you had a ray gun of your own.”

I smiled up at him. “Thank you.”

“No need to thank me, but you’re welcome!” Ray beamed as his brown eyes shone, even in this dim light.

All of a sudden, the van lurched to a stop and I almost couldn’t catch myself from hitting my head against one of the walls.

“It’s time to pick up the bikes,” announced Dr. Death Defying. “Ray, you remember how to hook ‘em up, right?”

“I think so!” Ray answered as he slid open the van door and jumped out.

“Mikey, go help him!” the moustached man ordered. Mikey quickly scampered out of the van like some kind of wildcat.

It was just me in one corner and the people I didn’t know just opposite me.

I must have looked as freaked out as I felt because Dr. Death Defying rolled a bit forward and stuck out a hand.

“I’m sorry about the abruptness. Emergency evacuation and all…” he started. “I’m Doctor Death Defying. This is Show Pony here,” he gestured downward, “and up there’s DJ Hot Chimp.” I looked up toward the front of the car and the driver turned their head around, so I could see a face with goggles on, red lipstick on their lips. DJ Hot Chimp silently raised her right hand as a greeting, then put it down.

Dr. Death Deying had raised his hand out in front of me. I reached over and gingerly took his hand to shake it.

I cleared my throat. “My name’s Leya.”

Dr. Death then smiled. “Some adventure you got yourself into, ain’t it?” he chuckled.

Before I could respond, I heard a big clang at the back of the van, and then a few seconds later, Ray and Mikey jumped back inside the van, closing the door behind them.

“Everything hooked up?” Dr. Death asked.

“Yep!” Ray replied as he sat down onto the van floor.

“Bikes…” I uttered out. “You mean, we got back to the Harley?” I asked.

“Yeah, here’s your sweater,” Ray said as he tossed me the black zipup hoodie from underneath his arm.

“Go ahead and sit up front, Ray,” Dr. Death directed to him. “We’re gonna need all the room we need to get started on Pony.”

“Sure thing, man,” Ray replied as he climbed up to the passenger seat.

“It can wait until we get back to the base,” Show Pony complained as Mikey crouched down, getting what looked like a pair of medical scissors into his hands.

“Don’t be brave now, Pony,” DJ Hot Chimp groaned.

“The sooner we get those nails out of you, the sooner you heal, the sooner you can skate around again. Now shut up and let us get to work!” Dr. Death barked down at Show Pony.

“Nails?” I questioned as I sat back, watching Mikey use the scissors to cut open a slit into Show Pony’s right legging. He peeled back the black leather to reveal a leg streaked with dried blood and the ends of three nails sticking out of his upper thigh.

I put a hand to my mouth and gasped. It looked pretty gross.

“Yeah… the Dracs’ torture routine involved some inventive cruelty. Using a nail gun to punish me each time I didn’t give up information about Dr. D,” Show Pony told me with tired eyes. “Of course, that was after the beatings and the overall starvation and dehydration of the several days I was detained.”

“Someone get this kid a damn drink!” Dr. Death barked again.

I could hear Ray fishing for something in the glove compartment. A few seconds later he tossed over a flask. Dr. Death then put the flask to Show Pony’s lips.

“What’s this?” Show Pony slightly slurred.

“Just drink. You’re gonna need it to get through this,” Dr. Death gravely warned.

Show Pony took several gulps and coughed out. “Whiskey?!”

“That’s the good stuff, too…” Dr. Death nonchalantly replied.

Mikey had all his tools laid out next to him on top of a large piece of white tissue paper. Several of them looked sharp…

“Can you get the flashlight ready?” Mikey directed to Dr. Death. The man in question replied with a grunt as he reached over to the side, picking up a large flashlight from the floor.

“You know why they let me live so long?” Show Pony asked with a smirk. He looked around at each of us, seeing the question in our eyes, before he answered his own question: “They’re looking for the Fabulous Killjoys.”

At this, everyone in the van met eyes. Even the driver raised her goggles to the top of her head to show off a skeptical look.

“Yep…” Show Pony continued. “Apparently SCARECROW is finally trying to cover up the scandal of the dead Killjoys who are actually not dead and escaped. Basically, there’s a hunt out for you guys, but it’s like a secret hunt because they can’t let the cat out of the bag that you guys are actually alive. So since Dr. D, myself and Hot Chimp were the ones closest to ya’ll, they apparently think we know where you guys are.” He started chuckling breathlessly as Mikey resumed his preparation. “The funniest part was… Ray was there the whole time, and they didn’t even fucking know! They didn’t fucking know, man! Right in front of them…and they were going through with all this shit just to lure Dr. D there!”

“Alright Pony, brace yourself for a second,” Dr. Death warned as Mikey cut into his thigh with a scalpel.

“Grrr!” Pony was grunting through the pain with his teeth clenched tight.

“Leya, distract him,” Mikey told me without even looking at me.

“Uh…” I started as I came closer to the operation. “So you noticed Ray?”

“I… noticed it when you guys came in. Besides, who can forget a handsome face like that?” he was lazily smiling now as Mikey and Dr. D got to work getting the nails out of his leg. “By the way, I’m digging the short fro, Ray,” Show Pony told him with a wink.

Ray softly chuckled. “Thanks, Pony!”

“You’re very welcome, Ray–urrrghh!” Pony replied as Mikey had started tugging out one of the nails. Blood was running down Show Pony’s thigh. Mikey was grimacing at his own work as Dr. Death grasped Show Pony’s left hand for support.

I decided to hold Show Pony’s other hand, just to give what little support I could. He turned his head over to me, his eyes hazy with exhaustion.

“Hey, you’re really pretty…” he told me.

I could feel my cheeks start blushing. “Um…thank you…” I don’t know how pretty I could be since I haven’t showered in over 5 days, there’s no makeup on me at all, my lips are chapped, my hair must be filthy, oh, and I’m covered in dried up gasoline.

“No, really. How the hell did you even get mixed up with dirty, ugly Killjoys like us–with the exception of Ray, of course,” he said with a chuckle.

“They found me,” I explained with a smile. “About 4 months ago, I was running from Dracs and then when it looked like it was all over, the Fabulous Killjoys showed up and saved the day. And now… well, now I was looking for answers. I was looking for you and Dr. Death Defying, actually, and the search led me to Ray and Mikey all over again.”

“Young Mikey over here never did finish tellin’ me what ya’ll were up to, bein’ all the way out here. And now that you’ve found us, what were the answers you were plannin’ on gettin’ from us?” Dr. Death directed at me.

I looked over at his serious face and responded, “I wanted to know what really happened that night the guys went into Battery City to get Grace back.”

“Gahh!” Show Pony had cried out as Mikey pulled the first nail out of his leg.

“I’m sorry,” Mikey softly apologized as he wiped the bleeding area of skin. “Ray, I need the cigarette lighter…”

“I’m assuming since you found Ray and Mikey, they told you what happened?” Dr. Death continued.

“They told me the summary,” I said with a hard gaze. “I’d like to learn the full truth. How you got there just in time to save Grace, but not the guys. Why there’s been no word from you. Why you seemed to just disappear off the face of the earth recently. And I’d like to know where Frank is. Those are the answers I plan on getting from you, Doctor.”

I saw Mikey give me a few tense glances as I said all this. He was still working on Show Pony’s leg, though.

Dr. Death cleared his throat as he looked down. “Well, that’s a lot of loaded requests you got there, little lady!”

“Not really,” I argued back. “Just tell me the truth.”

“Jesus–motherfucking Christ!” Show Pony gasped as Mikey had been burning the cigarette lighter over the bleeding dip that was in Show Pony’s thigh.

“Goddammit Mikey! Stop!” Show Pony yelled.

“It’s so the bleeding stops!” Mikey yelled back. He wasn’t angry, but it reminded me of how he used to get grumpy with me when I was an unruly patient of his. “You know, you can die from bleeding out of your thigh like this. Just…bite down on something…”

Mikey finally took the cigarette lighter from Show Pony’s flesh and handed it back to Ray, who put it back in its slot at the front of the car.

“Just let me die… I’m almost there,” Show Pony sighed. I could feel his grip in my hand weakening.

“Anyway, those are a lot of questions you’re askin’. I’m not sure I can really answer all of them,” Dr. Death continued telling me as he took one hand to rub his forehead.

I was kind of getting pissed off at this. But considering he saved our asses, I can’t be too mad at him.

“Then at least answer one,” I finally told him, with careful composure. “Do you have any idea where Frank is?”

Dr. Death took in a deep breath, and then sighed. “I wish I knew where that fool was gone…”

“You mean you don’t know?” I asked.

Show Pony was grunting again, his eyes hazy. He seemed to be either falling asleep or losing consciousness.

“Just hang in there, Pony,” Mikey said as he successfully pulled out another nail. This time, it didn’t bleed out that much.

“No,” Dr. Death said with raised eyebrows of his own. “I’ve been trying to track him down when I could afford to, but there’s been nothing. No news. No radio messages… The last I heard of him was when he asked me to take one of the bikes out to Battery City.”

“So you _did_ help him leave!” Ray exclaimed from the front of the van.

Dr. D looked toward Ray with a sigh. “I had to… The dumbass was gonna leave whether any of us tried to stop him or not. It was better to have cooperated and equipped him than to have brushed him off.”

“So that was the last time you had contact with him?” I asked.

“Yes. And I’ve tried to get in touch with him, believe me! I’m no less worried about him getting into trouble than Mikey or Ray. I knew he was gonna hit trouble. That’s why I wasn’t surprised when I found my bike, trashed up along route guano.”

“Grr!” it was Show Pony grunting again as Mikey worked on getting the last nail out of his thigh.

“Almost got it…” Mikey muttered as he was literally pulling the nail out of Show Pony’s thigh with his bloody fingers.

“I think I’m gonna pass out…” Show Pony moaned.

“Just hang in there….got it!” Mikey triumphantly called out as he yanked the nail out, placing it with the two others on the same piece of tissue paper his tools were resting on.

Show Pony’s grip on my hand was now completely slack. I looked down and saw that his eyes were closing.

Dr. Death also took notice, and took a hand to lightly slap one of Show Pony’s cheeks. “Hey, don’t pass out on me, Pony… Come on, you always slack off on the job, lazy fucker.”

“D, I just want you to know…” Show Pony weakly whispered out, “It’s been a pleasure–”

“Shut the fuck up,” Dr. Death muttered. “And just go to sleep, lazy tard.”

Show Pony chuckled with a cough. “You won’t even let me die in peace…”

“You’re not dying!” Dr. Death sounded annoyed now. “Now, I’ll respect the fact that maybe you haven’t had much sleep in the past week–so sleep, goddamnit.”

Show Pony proceeded to close his eyes. “Gotta admit, I scared you just a little bit…”

“Fuck off,” Dr. Death muttered. We all laughed.

“Back to where we were…” he resumed as he faced me again.

“Right… So you have no way of finding out where Frank is?” I asked.

Dr. D scratched his head. “I’m sorry. I’ve already been working on it, but… I found that bike 2 weeks after Frank left. It was smashed, mangled, completely destroyed, and…” He paused to give me a weary stare.

What does this mean…? Is he trying to tell me that Frank’s–

“The only silver lining on this cloud is that was all that was left. When I helped Frank get out of here, I gave him a radio receiver and transmitter. Neither of those were left. And there was no body, no bones… Nothing except the bike. I’m hoping that means that Frank ran from there and took off with it. But there’s also the possibility that someone else scavenged it.”

“You never told us about this before…” Ray quietly directed toward Dr. Death. He was looking down now with a frown.

“You had enough on your plate taking care of Mikey. Especially after losing the other guys. You didn’t need any more upsettin’,” Dr. Death replied as he looked down.

Ray didn’t answer.

I swallowed before asking, “So is there a way to find him?”

Mikey shot a quick look at me, looking like he was questioning my sanity.

“If he’s alive…” Dr. Death replied, “it doesn’t look like it’s going to be easy. In fact, you’re gonna need a miracle of a miracle to find Frank. You’ll probably have to search every inch of this desert to find him–if there’s any part of him left in the desert, anyway.”

“They told me that you were the hardest person to find in the desert. And it was pretty damn easy, if I do say so myself. It can’t be impossible to find Frank,” I replied as I stared back at Dr. Death.

He looked down with a sigh. “Miss Leya, don’t you think I’ve been trying to find the bastard these last few months? I’m not any closer to finding him than I was when I found that trashed up bike. Now, I really wish I could help. But that’s all I’ve got.”

I nodded and then looked down.

Great. So even though I’ve finally found Dr. Death, he can’t help.

It was quiet for a while. The only sounds we heard were the clinking of the beads against the bright light bulb and the soft fabric of the bandage that Mikey was binding around Show Pony’s leg.

And then Dr. Death broke the silence. “Look, you got the kind of face that could break any bastard’s heart. So tell you what, I’m gonna sleep on it, and do some more brainstorming tomorrow. Maybe I’ll find something I just overlooked before.”

“Really?” I asked, a smile growing on my face.

Dr. Death nodded. “Really.”

“Thank you!” I said as I smiled across at him.

He made a smile pushing his moustache down further to the sides. “Just get some rest. All of you. Good work today, kids!”

He turned towards the door and started fixing his electric wheelchair on the floor. DJ Hot Chimp revved the engine up and we were on the move again.

Ray settled into the passenger seat he was sitting in. And I pulled up the hood of my sweater so I could lean against the wall of the van as it rolled along the road.

Mikey, finally done with the operation, leaned back and sat against the same wall of the van next to me. He looked exhausted, his brown hair having gone limp on the sides again.

He looked over at me. “Hey, I never did get started on fixing you up.”

My eyes widened. “What are you talking about?” I asked.

“This,” Mikey said as he brought his hand up and bumped a fist against my right shoulder.

“Ow,” I exclaimed, pulling away from him.

Mikey just raised an eyebrow in response to me.

I cleared my throat and composed myself. “It’s nothing. Just…”

“Just a graze from a laser? Come on, you know I have to fix that up,” Mikey told me with a grumpy face.

I was about to reply–when I finally realized it.

He was acting normal.

This whole time since he arrived with Dr. Death, he’d finally been acting like himself…like the Mikey that I used to know. The one that was all bossy about fixing me up. _The one that didn’t need to ask before he manhandled me._

“What?” Mikey asked with a narrowed eye as he kept looking at me.

I blinked my eyes. “Oh–uh–I was, uh–” I couldn’t really think of a lie.

“Are you sure you’re okay? Let me just patch you up real quick and–”

I cut him off with a giggle.

He stopped and raised his eyebrows. “What are you laughing at?”

“I don’t know!” I answered as I tried to stop laughing. Once I did, I looked over at Mikey’s confused hazel eyes. “You’re back,” I finally told him.

His eyes softened.

“What happened? Why…why did you come back?” I asked him.

He looked down briefly. “I kept thinking about what you said, how I was only half the man I used to be…”

I sighed. “I didn’t mean it, Mikey–”

“Yeah, you did,” he cut me off as he looked back up at me. “And you were completely right. Being scared and angry all the time–that’s not me. That’s not who I should be, anyway. So once I sat back at the house, I thought really hard… I tried to remember the man I used to be.”

Mikey made a pause, and I kept my eyes fixed on him until he continued.

“And…I didn’t have that much luck, but one memory did come back to me,” he told me as he looked down with a smile. “That last time we said goodbye…now it had come to me in bits and pieces the first time I remembered you, but it’s all there now.”

He was still smiling, showing off those fangs I’d missed seeing.

“And, it’s probably not a big thing, but I remember how you said 'I’ll miss you more, Kobra Kid.’ And for some reason, I feel like you used to call me Kobra Kid even though you obviously knew my real name. And so I started thinking about how Kobra Kid was a Fabulous Killjoy, he was a hero, he was the persona I created when I became a Killjoy, he’s the guy I turned into–and I had completely abandoned him once we sort of gave up our titles. So when I was sitting back at home thinking  about  all this, I realized I still had this old jacket stowed away.” Mikey was patting at his shoulders as he said this. He continued, “So I got to thinking…maybe it’s stupid, but if I put the jacket on again, it’ll kind of be like wearing the Kobra uniform again, and maybe it’ll make me Kobra Kid again. And so I put the jacket on, and it was like…like a part of me came back.”

I swallowed. It was all the cruel shit I had told him that sparked all this. I looked at the jacket he was wearing now. It had a few streaks and burn marks across it, but it was still in fairly good condition.

“Anyway, that’s when Dr. D showed up at the doorstep, and asked me to come along to help him get Show Pony. And I couldn’t very well refuse,” Mikey continued with a smirk.

“Well, it’s nice to have you back,” I told him with a smile.

We were quiet for a few seconds. It was comfortable again.

“Well, that’s enough storytelling for now. Take off your sweater. I’m gonna wrap up that shoulder,” Mikey ordered.

“Ugh, fine…” I answered as I rolled my eyes. But really, I was holding back from smiling. My bossy, overconcerned, silly Mikey is back. Maybe not completely yet, but he’s on his way.

I shrugged off my hooded sweater and sat still. Mikey gently lifted up the sleeve of the t-shirt I was wearing over my bony shoulder and just looked at it for a second. He glanced down.

“And how’s your wrist?” he took his other hand and took care to turn my wrist to examine the bandage. A bit of it had come undone, revealing the scrape underneath. There were also new red marks from the cuffs I was stuck in all day.

“Hmmph,” he breathed out while shaking his head. “I’m gonna have to redo that, too.”

“Cool,” I remarked unenthustiastically.

Mikey started getting the bandages out again. He came closer and lifted up the shirt sleeve over my shoulder again before frowning.

“I’m gonna have to rip that sleeve off, if you don’t mind. It’ll just make this easier,” he told me as he got a hold of surgical scissors again.

“I don’t mind,” I replied. “It’s your shirt, anyway…”

Mikey breathed out a laugh as he grabbed the sleeve and started cutting away until he was able to rip it off the seams.

I turned my head to the right to look over at my right shoulder. The burn looked like nothing more than a dark skid mark against the skin, but nonetheless, Mikey treated it like a 3rd-degree burn, putting some ointment on it and wrapping it up intricately with tape.

After that was done, Mikey started taking off the ruined bandages that were on my wrist. The skin was barely healing, still a lot of vulnerable skin tissue waiting to be regenerated.

“Can I ask you something?” Mikey asked before he started taking a new bandage to my wrist.

“Of course,” I answered, blinking in curiosity.

“You… you were pretty close to Frank, huh?” He was wrapping my wrist now, so he wasn’t looking at me.

I blinked. “Um… yeah, I guess.” I continued to look at Mikey until he looked up at me while biting the side of his lip.

“Sorry, it’s just… I remember now when you and Frank said goodbye. And, well… it seemed kind of intense, what with the tears and all. But in a good way, if that makes any sense. Like…he was special to you.”

“You were all special to me,” I defended.

“But Frank was more special than the rest of us,” Mikey returned with a smile.

I looked down toward the arm that was being bandaged.

“It’s okay if he was your favorite,” Mikey continued. “If anything, I’m glad you guys were that close.”

I didn’t respond to this, waiting for more clarification.

“Anyway,” Mikey said as he cleared his throat, “I was just remembering that. And now… I understand how much it will mean to you to find him. I guess before, I didn’t really think about how you were feeling about this. If I had only known how close you two were…” He paused while looking down. “Seeing how sad you were to say goodbye, I can only imagine how happy you’ll be when you see him again.”

He was smiling at me now. I had to crack a smile back, even though bringing up Frank made my heart hurt.

Mikey finished bandaging and taping up my wrist in less than a minute. After that was finally done, I put on my sweater again, and Mikey turned off the light in the van. Everyone else was already dozing off besides DJ Hot Chimp at the wheel.

“Thank you,” I quietly told Mikey after he sat down next to me, leaning against the van’s frame.

“For what?” Mikey asked, his voice sounding a little rough with fatigue. He didn’t turn to face me. It was too dark to see each other anyway

“Just thank you,” I answered. For things that I couldn’t explain right now.

“You’re welcome,” Mikey told me warmly.

After that, we were silent as we laid back against the wall of the van.

I couldn’t tell who fell asleep first.

  
  


  
  


It was still dark out by the time we woke up.

Just an hour or so before dawn, I gathered from the faint hint of pink on the horizon. We had stopped in some remote place in the desert, and had just gotten out of the van, waiting for Dr. Death to get down.

I looked up at the sky, just a few stars left twinkling. I was yawning as I heard someone call my name.

“Leya! Can you give us a hand?” It was Ray. He and Mikey were carrying Show Pony, using the cot as a gurney.

Show Pony groaned. “It’s a little cold out…”

“That’s 'cause you’re barely wearing anything,” Mikey chuckled.

“Just help Mikey get that side of the cot,” Ray told me as he knelt down to pick up the side of the cot closest to Show Pony’s feet.

I helped carry Show Pony several yards across the dirt to a small building, waiting for Dr. Death and DJ Hot Chimp to open the doors.

“Home sweet home,” Dr. Death said as he got the bolted door unlocked. “Make sure not to let him hit anything. His head’s already a bit fucked up from when his mama dropped him as a baby.”

“Fuck you, D,” Show Pony chuckled as we moved him into the building and went through a small corridor to finally rest him onto a real bed. It was too dark for me to make out anything in here without light.

“Let’s go get the bikes and supplies down,” Ray said as he nudged me to follow him out of the building again. He and Mikey raced across the dirt to go unhook the small rider from the van.

Meanwhile, I kept my eye on the horizon. The sky was turning a purplish pink now, the sun just itching to come out.

I had gotten through another night out here in the desert.

And another day was coming.

A day that was going to bring us closer to finding Frank.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> During the process of writing When All the Lights Go Out, I wrote a 9-chapter spinoff titled When the Sun Goes Black, which follows Frank's story in the four months between ADWTFL and WATLGO, beginning with what happened right after the SING music video faded to black. It fills in mysteries that are important to putting all the pieces together by the end of When All The Lights Go Out.
> 
> For the best, most complete understanding of the plot, it is recommended that When the Sun Goes Black is read between chapters 14 and 15 of this story, When All The Lights Go Out.
> 
> However... if you would like to read When All The Lights Go Out without the spinoff, be my guest! Since this was originally posted on a blog, most if not all of the readers were able to read in the order I wrote, so they began WATLGO, followed the spinoff, and returned to WATLGO. But it would be interesting to see how this story is perceived and if it makes sense without having read the spinoff.
> 
> Click here to head over to _[When The Sun Goes Black](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7845328)_


	15. Chapter 15

_“I’ll be back in a few hours,” Diamondback said just before he went up to the door._

_“Wait!” I called after him as I ran up. “I want to go with you this time!” I was almost bursting with excitement and anticipation._

_Diamondback scoffed. “What? No. Absolutely not.”_

_I frowned. “Why not?”_

_“I’ve told you a million times, Leya. It’s too dangerous out there.” He had his grumpy face on again._

_“You and Jax and Sniper manage to go out there all the time and come back without any scratches. What’s the big deal?” I argued._

_Diamondback heaved out a short, frustrated sigh as he leaned his ray gun across his right shoulder, showing off his toned bicep. “Jax and Sniper know how to fight…” he tells me with a raised, dark eyebrow and a crooked smirk above his scruffy chin. Sniper was standing off just a few feet with his arms crossed, not saying anything, but looking a bit tense._

_“I can fight, too!” I protest._

_Jax came around, tucking his ray gun into his hip holster. “Just let her come this time, Diamondback. We’ll watch out for her.” He smiled over at me, somehow making his blue eyes twinkle like he always did._

_Diamondback frowned, directing his dark eyes at Jax this time. “No. And any other word out of you, and I’m not letting you come either.”_

_Jax creased his eyebrows in response, starting to talk back before I interrupted._

_“Diamond, I can handle myself. I’ve wrestled and pinned down Jax a bunch of times easy! If he can be out there with you guys, then that means I can be, too!” I had my hands clenched as I said all of this. It’s not fair…they’re always going out, gone days at a time, while I’m all cooped up here._

_Diamondback creased his eyebrows. “You and Jax…_ _**wrestle** _ _?” He shot a dark look at Jax._

_Jax’s eyes widened and he put up his hands in defense. “Dude, it’s not what you think!”_

_“Leya’s telling the truth,” Sniper added while peeking out an eye under his dark fringe of hair. “I’ve seen her take down Jax. It was…pretty hilarious, actually.”_

_Jax gave Sniper a narrowed glance, and then returned his gaze to Diamondback. “See, wrestling, as in fighting… Nothing else going on!”_

_Diamondback sighed. “Okay…”_

_“See?!” I told him._

_“Yeah, but Leya, have you ever even used a ray gun before?” Diamondback asked as he started to tap his own ray gun against his shoulder._

_I blinked. “Well… sort of…”_

_“Sort of doesn’t cut it. You’ve never fought with armed Dracs before. And you’ve never properly used a ray gun. So you tell me, if you were me, would you want you out there?”_

_I looked down, biting my lip. I guess he kind of has a point…_

_“Don’t look so down,” I heard Diamondback say as he put a hand on my left shoulder. “We’ll be back in no time.”_

_I looked up at him, noting his kind brown eyes, shaded under a thick tuft of brown hair that hovered over his forehead. Even if Diamondback kind of did act like a strict older brother, he always made sure to be nice to me._

_“That’s not the problem,” I whined as I looked to the side._

_“Then what is?” he asked as he kept a hand on my shoulder._

_“I want to learn how to fight, so I can go out there with you guys!” I said with a little too much passion. “You tell me I’m not strong enough and that I don’t know how to fight–well, then why don’t you teach me?”_

_Diamondback’s eyes lowered, looking almost pained. “I don’t want you out there_ _**ever** _ _, Leya.”_

_I grew angry and shrugged off his hand from my shoulder. “Quit treating me like a child! I’m only a year younger than Jax. And even if you don’t want me to be out there with you, there’s nothing stopping danger from coming here. And then what’ll happen if you’re gone and I’m here, unable to defend myself properly because you left me alone?”_

_“I thought you said you could handle yourself,” Diamondback told me with a slight glint in his eye as he crossed his arms._

_“Uh–well–yeah, I can!” I claimed. “But you know, if you taught me how to use a ray gun, then it would save me some time…”_

_Everyone was silent for a few seconds._

_Diamondback’s deep sigh was the first thing to break the silence. “Fine. Starting tomorrow, we’ll start training.”_

_“You mean it?” I was beaming._

_Diamondback smiled. “I mean it. Now stay here and wait!” he told me before I could get too excited about the idea._

_“See you, Leya!” Jax said as he practically bounced out behind Diamondback, causing his golden blonde hair to dance._

_Sniper gave me a silent wave from his gloved left hand and a smile from his pierced lips._

_“Come back soon,” I replied, feeling more excited than I had in the last 8 months._

The images in my head warped and diffused back to that same day. Diamondback and the others came home early, we happily talked about the training we’d be doing the next day, and then it all ended so suddenly. Diamondback had fallen on top of me, and I was staring up at his weakening eyes, and the blood had soaked through his shirt and splattered onto his face.

I can feel myself awake now, sort of, I guess. I still have my eyes closed, but I see nothing now.

That day… never should have happened. Even though some good has come out of me being on my own and meeting the Fabulous Killjoys, I still… I miss Jax, Diamondback, and Sniper so much. Why can’t you all just be here with me now?

_“Because you’re doing alright without us, kid.”_

I bolted upright in my bed, my heart racing. I had heard Diamondback’s voice. And it didn’t sound like it was in my head. It sounded like it was here in this room.

I darted my eyes around and realized I was still at Dr. Death’s. And no one else was in this small room, which was only illuminated by soft light from the window.

I reached a hand up to my face, feeling tears all over it. I put my other hand on my chest, feeling it puff in and out too quickly. I just imagined Diamondback’s voice…didn’t I? Of course I did, he’s…dead. The three of them, Jax and Sniper too, they’re all dead.

It’s been so long since I’ve had a dream about them.

And to be honest, I don’t even think of them as often as I used to. God, I’m a horrible person. They died to save me, and here I am, just running around the desert getting myself into more dangerous situations. Only to get saved by more people.

  
  


This needs to end.

  
  


I wiped my eyes and looked out the window. The golden light probably means it’s late afternoon. I had slept all day, I guess, after I had knocked out this morning. All I remember is going back inside once Dr. D got all his stuff down, and then literally falling into this bed.

Well, there’s no use staying here and wallowing. I have to get my head back to the present, to the reason why I’m here. And that’s because I’m with my friends, and we’re going to try and rescue Frank next.

I smiled then.

No, no use crying. Things are good. Mikey’s getting back to his normal self, Show Pony’s alive, and Dr. Death is going to do another search for Frank. We’re going to find him.

I got up out of bed after wiping the last of my tears and walked out of the room to see the large wide open space of clutter all along the walls. I heard muffled voices from outside and walked towards the back of the building to see the scene of Ray, Mikey, Dr. D, Show Pony, and DJ Hot Chimp leaning and sitting along the back porch, smiling and talking together.

Diamondback and the others would be glad to know that I’m not alone. And I remember what I said. I’m gonna make them proud.

I went outside and joined the others, and got caught up on what went on while I slept. Mikey had taken care of Show Pony’s gunshot wound on his left knee, and I found out that Grace wasn’t here because she was sent up north for safety with some other allies. It’s too bad… I was hoping to meet her.

Dr. Death also informed me that Angel and the other Killjoys back at the Black Widow safely made it out, even though the bar got burned to the ground. And they were on their way to Sweetwater.

I’m really glad to hear that. That means that if Angel goes to Sweetwater and sees Caelan, then he can tell Caelan where I am, or at least let him know I’m okay. So I don’t really have to worry about anyone worrying about me at Sweetwater anymore. Well, that is if Caelan isn’t still pissed at me for rejecting him and refusing to go back with him. But he’s bound to get over that soon.

The rest of the day at Dr. Death’s, we made dinner, talked, and then went to sleep. After feeling all my aches and bruises from the previous night’s encounter, sleep felt glorious, even if I had already spent half the day sleeping.

  
  


Then a miracle happened the next day. It rained.

  
  


The day started out warm as usual. But gray clouds hovered in the sky, as warm winds rushed past us. And then I heard a patter on the windows. And then several more, and soon enough, it was raining fast drops of cool water over the land.

I rushed outside with a smile on my face and felt the drops fall onto my arms, my face, all over my body. I missed the smell of wet dirt. In Battery City, I could never smell the rain. This is probably the only thing that makes it worthwhile to be surrounded by nothing but dirt in the Zones.

The others followed me outside and we all stood in the rain, even Show Pony who rolled over here in an electric wheelchair very similar to Dr. Death’s. I’m guessing he had more than one lying around…

“I think this is the liveliest I’ve ever seen you!” Ray laughed as he came to stand beside me.

“I love the rain!” I shouted out to the sky as I spun around. My hair was completely drenched now, but I could care less.

I caught a look from Mikey, and he was smiling at me. It was nice to see those vampire teeth again.

“I can’t even remember the last time I’ve seen rain…” Ray mused as he put his face up to the sky.

I remember one of the last couple times it rained. I was with Diamondback. But that time, the rain was more violent, the wind was blustery, and there was loud, crashing thunder and lightning. I was scared because I had never been through a storm that severe, and I was literally hiding in a corner with my eyes closed and my ears covered. And then Diamondback came up to me and told me something I’ll never forget.

_“Leya, this is a trick I learned when I was a young boy. Whenever you feel scared, just count to seventeen and close your eyes. And then the worst will be over.”_

I questioned this “trick”, but I did as Diamondback said, and wouldn’t you know, seventeen seconds later the thunder stopped and the rain started to let up. It was a miracle.

I remember asking him, “What if the worst isn’t over by the time I count to seventeen?” and he just said, “It doesn’t matter. Because in seventeen seconds you’ll be brave enough to face it.”

Ever since then, that expression “count to seventeen and close your eyes” has meant a lot to me. And I understand why that was the last thing Diamondback said to me before he died. He made it possible for me to be brave enough to face the worst.

After we all stopped playing in the rain, Show Pony offered to help me paint my newly acquired ray gun, since it was still white.

“Just tell me what colors you want, and I’ll help you out,” he cheerfully told me as he rolled next to me in the room full of clutter. We cleared one of the white plastic tables and set a bunch of old newspaper on it to prepare for the spray painting process.

“Thanks!” I replied as I tied my dripping hair into a ponytail. “Um…do you have purple?”

“I’m sure we do! Hold on!”

With Show Pony’s supervision, we decorated a ray gun that was mostly violet, with white stars shooting across the barrel to the handle. The stars were in homage to my old Killjoy name, Stellar Jazz.

“Looks sweet,” Ray remarked as he walked by shaking his wet curls. “Are you gonna put a motto on it or something?”

“A motto?” I asked.

“Yeah, we all have something written on our guns. Mine has ‘because I said so’ on it. Mikey’s says "deluxe” because Demon-Shark Deluxe was almost his Killjoy name.“

I laughed at that last part.

"So are you going to put some words on it?” Show Pony asked as he started to get stencils out of an art toolbox he had open on the table.

“I think I know what to put,” I said as I picked one of the stencil designs he had in his hands.

“Count to 17 and close your eyes…” Show Pony read after he sprayed black paint onto the side of the barrel of my new gun. “I like it!” He smiled up at me. “It’s very…mysterious.”

“Thanks,” I replied with a smile.

“Well, all we have to do is let this dry, and then you can start shooting away with it as much as your heart desires,” Show Pony told me.

“Thanks, Pony. I can’t believe you’ve been doing this instead of resting!”

He smirked. “Let’s see, stay in bed or help a cute girl decorate a ray gun? It wasn’t really a tough choice.”

“Hey, Casanova! Get yourself in bed before I knock you out!” we heard Dr. Death yell from the next room over.

Show Pony made a short laugh. “Well, guess that means I gotta go. See ya later!”

I laughed and smiled to myself. I’m never really used to getting complimented on my looks. Not that I think I’m ugly or anything but…I haven’t worn makeup in a year and I’m constantly covered in dirt. I bet I’m _super_ attractive…

Still, it was nice to finally be able to laugh again.

  
  


  
  


  
  


  
  


  
  


*TCHH*

*TCHH*

*TCHH*

  
  


  
  


Bullseyes except for two of the targets.

“Can you set 'em up again?” I called out as put my hands on my hips, catching my breath.

“Again?! That’s going to be the fifth time in a row today!” Show Pony exclaimed as he hobbled over with a cane to help me set up the practice targets for my ray gun shooting.

“Practice makes perfect!” I called out with a laugh. “And hey, we made a deal, remember?”

“Yeah, we might have to upgrade that to a complimentary foot massage once this is done!” Show Pony complained.

“Oh, it’s not that bad, is it?” I giggled as I shook my arms out, to get the tension out of them from repeatedly shooting these targets for the past hour.

Now that I had a gun of my own, it was finally time to get in the shooting practice I direly needed. And especially since my right arm was scraped and I had a laser wound–a very minor laser wound–on my right shoulder, I needed to do more training with my left hand.

The few times I even used a gun, most of the time I never landed shots where I aimed, and if I hit something vital, it was usually because I got lucky. Yeah, sure, I’ve ghosted several Dracs with one shot before, but it’s pretty hard to miss someone who’s less than ten feet in front of you. It’s the farther distance shots where I really need help.

So luckily Dr. D. has some target practice panels out here behind his hideout. They’re the typical anatomical human wooden cutouts, but there’s special litmus paper on the fatal target points, which reacts to heat, so I can see the bright color each time I hit those points with a laser. I’ve actually been doing this for a few hours now. The sun is already setting.

“You’ve sure been putting Pony to work with this job…” I looked to my left to see Mikey walk up next to me in the dirt. He decided to keep his new hairstyle, with the front of his dark hair pushed back crookedly, no longer hiding his face. “Don’t you think wearing him out’s a little cruel?”

“I know how it looks, but I think treating him like this makes him feel better about his injury anyway,” I replied as we watched Show Pony set up the litmus paper on the targets again. “He seems like someone who would rather be up and about than stay in bed resting.”

“Yeah, I guess…” Mikey looked over at me. “Aren’t you wearing yourself out, too, with all this training?”

I breathed out a small laugh. “Not at all! I love this. Besides, I need the practice.”

Mikey looked over at me with strange, careful eyes, as if I said something pitiful.

“You should get out of the way. Pony’s about done putting the targets back up,” I told him as I started to stretch and flex my wrists.

“Okay. Me and Ray’ll be inside. Try to at least get in before it gets dark,” Mikey said with a small laugh.

  
  


Apart from the ray gun practice, I’ve also been doing boxing and kung fu training with Ray and Mikey these past few days. I already had some training in kickboxing from high school and various other fighting techniques from when my sister and I were affiliated with a Resistance group in Battery City–that’s the only reason that I have been able to put up a fight against Dracs out here since I haven’t had a gun of my own most of the time. But being able to take out agents and Dracs without a weapon is probably the best advantage you can have out here.

The boxing practice with Ray was pretty elementary, but it worked out my upper body and my core a lot, so I used it mostly for keeping in shape and refining my punches. Especially for a girl as small as me, I need as much strength as I can afford.

In the middle of the week, Ray, Dr. D, and Hot Chimp left to go search for more clues of where Frank might be. Show Pony stayed here with me and Mikey. So I only split up my time between gun practice, kung-fu practice, and cooking–since Show Pony and Mikey were both helpless in that department.

The kung-fu practice with Mikey was a little different from boxing in its principles. There was a lot more solo work without hitting anything, and it just had a lot of repetition and breathing exercises involved. Right now we were taking a break on the back porch.

“So when are you going to teach me how to fight?” I asked Mikey as I leaned against the wall and sat down, shading my eyes from the afternoon sun.

“Be patient,” he answered with narrowed eyes. He was already sitting with his knees up at the edge of the porch. “You’ve got to learn the defensive motions first. Then we can get started on the offensive moves.”

I raised my eyebrows at him. “Yeah, because that’s all you do when you fight with kung-fu… I’ve seen you. You get kind of crazy. I want to be like that.” I smiled at him as I said this.

He looked over and breathed out a laugh. “Hold your horses. You’re already doing the gun and boxing practice. Are you trying to be the next Jean-Claude Van Damme?”

“Who?” I asked in confusion.

Mikey sighed. “Uh, forget it. What I’m trying to say is… you’ve been training really hard. Isn’t it exhausting?”

“No,” I quickly answered without looking at him. “And so what if it is? That just means I’m getting stronger.”

Mikey was quiet for a few seconds. “What is this all about?”

“Why do you care?” I answered. I regretted it as soon as I said it. It came out snappy.

Mikey sighed as he looked over at me. “I care because I don’t want you to burn yourself out. You’re doing too much.”

“I–I’m fine,” I protested as I finally looked back at him. He was looking at me with concern, like he used to in the old days.

“Look, I get it. When we first became Killjoys, I knew a bit about fighting, but not nearly to the extent that I do now. It was painful, to leave some people behind in Battery City, and the way I coped with it was by throwing myself into physical training. None of the other guys did as much training as I did. Why do you think I’m the only one who knows kung-fu?”

I felt my eyes grow bigger as I heard this. “I had no idea…”

“Yeah,” he replied. “And while I think it’s… admirable for you to be training so hard, I know it’s a cover for something.”

I looked down and stayed silent.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Mikey asked.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” I answered him.

He breathed out in frustration. “Aren’t we supposed to be close?”

My eyes widened as I looked over at him. Does he remember or did Ray just tell him that?

“…I’m worried about you,” Mikey told me as he looked over at me and then bit his lip.

“Why?” I asked, more gentle with my tone this time.

“Because I don’t want you to go down the same path I did,” he told me.

I creased my eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”

“I wasn’t always this tough,” Mikey said as he cleared his throat. “And I’m not just talking about the person you met at the Black Widow. I’m talking about the guy you met a few months ago. I wasn’t a fighter, I wasn’t the one to take charge or rush into battle, or throw people up against walls and threaten them in exchange for information.”

“So what changed?” I asked.

“Like I said…it was painful leaving. And by channeling that pain into training, I could release those feelings, and from then on, fighting and violence became a way for me to expel any and all of my demons. But when I lose control… I kind of snap and then I do or say things that I regret later.” Mikey paused for a bit. “I don’t want you to turn into something like that.”

“How do you know I’m not already something like that?” I asked Mikey. Maybe I’m not physically violent, but I have this horrible habit of verbally snapping at people when I get pissed off and saying things that I regret later.

“You’re just not. You’re gentle–strong, but gentle–and you still have a bit of innocence–you’re just not a fighter.”

I frowned at this. “But I want to be!”

“Why?”

“So that I’m not useless anymore! So that I don’t need anyone to rescue me. So that I can save my friends. So that no one dies anymore!” I can feel tears coming up.

Mikey just looked at me. His eyes are a bit more sympathetic now. “You’re not useless, Leya. And…I think maybe I’m just being an idiot…”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

“Of course you’re fighting for the right reasons. You’re not like me…” It sounded like he was talking more to himself than to me.

“I’m glad you are the way that you are,” I told him after clearing my throat.

He looked up at me in surprise, his eyes wide.

“I like that you’re strong and that you fight well. I like that you get aggressive and angry when you want to protect people,” I continued. “It’s not a bad thing, Mikey… it just shows that you really care about the people you care about. So you get a little out of control sometimes? Well, then you’ll just have to work on that, and just get it in control. And you’re capable of doing that. Besides, you’re still a huge dork, so that kind of counterbalances the violence.” I smiled at him now.

Mikey stared for a few seconds with a straight face until he let his lips curve up at the sides.

“And hey, I’m tougher than you think, alright? Wasn’t I able to take you out cold the night I met you at the Black Widow?” I told him with a smirk.

“You snuck up on me with that power glove move. I wasn’t prepared for that,” Mikey replied with narrowed but light-hearted eyes. “And anyway, that wasn’t a real fight!”

I shrugged. “I bet I could take you in a real fight…”

Mikey snorted. “Yeah, sure… The only reason you’d win is because there’s no way I’d ever actually hit you.”

“I don’t know, you did get pretty rough when you pushed me up against a wall and stuck your ray gun into my throat,” I chuckled. “You also threw me on my face when you and Dr. D got us out of the Black Widow.”

“But I never actually hit you…” Mikey interjected with a raised eyebrow. “If we’re going to do a hit count here, then we have to count the scratches you made on my ribs and the fact that you electrocuted me once.

"One was self defense, and the other was…self defense!” I argued with a laugh.

Mikey laughed and smiled, and then he got quiet. “You don’t have to train so hard, Leya.”

My smile faded. “Yes, I do. I want to become stronger. If we’re going to find Frank, it’s going to be dangerous. I’ve had enough people risk their lives and die for me already. And I don’t want to add any more names to that list. And I definitely don’t want you or Ray to be on that list. So I have to be strong enough to look out for myself.”

Mikey looked down with a furrowed brow. “You’re not going to be alone out there. We’re a team, anyway, remember? Me and Ray will always have your back.”

“Well, then…I want to be strong enough to have your guys’ backs, too. I mean it. I don’t want you guys to have to worry about me when we’re in battle.”

Mikey replied with a smirk, “It’s kind of impossible to look at you and not be worried, though!”

“Why?” I asked as I furrowed my brow.

Mikey looked over at me as he rested his chin on a hand. “Go look in a mirror, Leya. You’re a pretty little…thing… and it’s like… imagining you in battle is like imagining a kitten in battle with a pack of wolves.”

“You think I’m pretty?” I asked with a grin.

Mikey rolled his eyes. “Is that really all you got out of what I just said?”

I stood up and started to stretch out my arms above my head. “I get what you’re saying, you ol’ worrywart,” I muttered. “But you’re wrong.”

Mikey turned and looked up at me. “I hope so.”


	16. Chapter 16

After Mikey and I continued to train for another hour, it was time to cook dinner–not that I really minded. Cooking actually gives me this weird sense of calm, I don’t know why. And Dr. D actually has a food supply here, so it’s not like we’re just eating beans out of a can everyday.

Show Pony and Mikey tried to help this time, but they were kind of…well, let’s just say it was more difficult with their help than it was without. Although, eventually we finished cooking a baked macaroni and cheese dish with bacon bits and broccoli on the inside (using freeze-dried packets of bacon and broccoli, that is).

As soon as we all sat down to eat, we heard the front door open and the sound of heavy boots stomp onto the floor.

“Hey all!” It was Ray, Dr. D and Hot Chimp! They walked into the kitchen looking travel-worn, but with good looks on their faces. Dr. D had a triumphant twinkle to his eye as he approached us at the table. He didn’t even have anything insulting to say to Show Pony this time.

“So… did you find anything?” I eagerly asked as I stood up from my seat.

“We have a new lead,” Dr. D replied with a smirk. “I have an informant who keeps me updated on news within Battery City, and it’s been a while since I got in touch. But man… I should have done this a month ago.”

I raised my eyebrows, waiting for more.

“Lately, there’s been talk of agents going missing in the borderlands over the past few weeks, as that is an area for SCARECROW agents-in-training to get experience. I’m told that they are sent out there for a few days, and only the ones that return unscathed pass some kind of test. Anyway, more than usual haven’t been returning. And that may mean that someone is out there dispatching of them.”

“And you think it might be Frank?” I asked, failing to contain my excitement with my high-pitched voice.

Hot Chimp moved forward as she crossed her arms. “Well, we don’t know who it is, or if there really is anyone there. But it wouldn’t hurt to investigate.”

“Then…let’s go now! Well–not now, I guess–but tomorrow!” I eagerly suggested as I grabbed onto the back of my seat to contain my excitement.

“Hold on there,” Ray told me as he stepped forward. “The borderlands are dangerous. There’s going to be a lot of SCARECROW agents defending the city in those parts.”

“Agents-in-training,” I corrected Ray.

“Are you sure you’re ready to go?” Mikey asked with a skeptical glance as he crossed his arms.

I blinked in disbelief and answered, “Yeah, of course. I’ve been training.”

“You’ve only been training for a week,” Mikey flatly answered.

I scoffed, “Okay, so first you complain that I’m training too much and now you’re complaining that I haven’t trained enough?”

Mikey raised his hands up and blinked. “I was just asking… Because fighting in and around Battery City is a whole other level up from fighting in the Zones.”

“Mikey has a point. We shouldn’t rush into anything that could be dangerous or something that you’re not prepared enough to face,” Ray continued.

“Ugh, are you guys being serious right now? Frank’s alone somewhere, he could be hurt, he could be sick… who knows what? And we should go after him ASAP!”

I looked around me at the others, and everyone stayed uncomfortably quiet.

“If it was any of us, Frank would get up and go in a heartbeat!” I continued as I clenched my fists.

“You’re right, he would. And that’s what got him in this situation in the first place,” Ray coolly replied with an angry look. “In fact, you sound just like he did right before he left.”

“But I’m not going to end up like him,” I argued as I put my palms onto the table. “I won’t be alone. I’ll have you guys with me. This is a team effort, remember?”

Mikey looked between me and Ray a bit apprehensively while Ray had a frown on his face.

I furrowed my brow. “Ray, you out of everyone in this room should know how capable I am of handling myself. I’ll give Mikey a break, because he doesn’t remember all the times we fought together, but you–you have no excuse.”

I looked around me and noted a few various-colored glass bottles resting on top of one of the tall cabinets next to the wall about twenty feet away from me and about twelve feet above the ground.

“See those three green bottles?” I asked as I pointed up to the cabinet.

Everyone looked in the direction I pointed to as I took out my ray gun and fired with my left hand.

*CLINK* *CLINK* *CLINK*

Only the green bottles crashed as I quickly lowered my ray gun and twirled it back until it fit back into the gun holster on the left side of my hip.

“Still think I’m not ready?” I asked.

The guys all had their jaws open and were silent. Hot Chimp was smiling. And then Show Pony leaped out of his seat and let out a “Whoo! That’s my girl–I taught her that twirling thing, by the way!”

I had my arms crossed as I faced Mikey and Ray with a stare. “Gerard put his faith in me when I suggested things that seemed crazy at the time, like going out to look for you guys when you were in prison. And Frank… Frank was the first person to not treat me like a damsel in distress. The first person who made me feel like… like I wasn’t completely useless in a battle.” I paused. “Frank trusted me, and I have full trust in him, too. And my heart is telling me that he’s still alive–he’s somewhere out there, just waiting for someone–for us–to find him. And now that I’ve gone this far and I’m this close to finding him…I have no choice but to follow this journey through to the end. I’ve waited long enough. Frank’s waited long enough. _We’ve all waited long enough_. So what do you guys say?”

Dr. D is the first to speak. “You know, I really liked those bottles.” He smiled up at me. “Heh, when you and Frank meet up, it sure as hell is gonna be noisy. It was kind of like having that hard-headed boy in here again for a minute.”

I smiled at this.

Ray stood up and this time his face looked friendly. “You know, you really did sound like Frank just now. I think it’s what we needed to hear, though. And you’re right. I shouldn’t doubt you. Not after all we’ve been through together.” He walked up to me and clapped a hand on my left shoulder. “You have my support.”

Mikey was the last one to speak up, although he stayed seated. “Well, you’re certainly no damsel in distress. And so far, all your crazy ideas haven’t let us down. So let’s go find Frank.”

I felt my smile grow.

“Great. You’re all on board…” Hot Chimp remarked. “So does that mean you’ll all shut up with the bickering now so we can finally sit down and eat?” She took off her glasses and lazily twirled them with two fingers.

“Of course!” I replied with a smile. “Go ahead and get yourselves settled back in.”

“Just so you know… I was on board with you going the whole time,” Show Pony cut in as he moved to sit back down at the table. “Damn, I really wish I could go with you guys!”

Dr. D rolled over next to Show Pony. “I think you’ve spent enough time with Leya, so it’ll be good of you to stay here for a while. Did this creep try to pull a move on you while we were gone?”

I giggled as Show Pony looked at Dr. D in horror. “No, not that I noticed. He’s been fun company.”

“See, I’m fun company!” Show Pony retorted as he stuck his tongue out at Dr. D.

Dr. D laughed. “Well, at least I know Mikey here would never disrespect you or let this creep do anything.”

“I don’t know…” I started. Mikey bent an eyebrow at this. “He did mention today that I was a quote-unquote ‘pretty little thing.’”

Mikey’s cheeks went bright red. “Well–why is Pony allowed to call you cute and cutie like all the time and get away with it? All I said was that you were pretty!”

The rest of us laughed at how flustered Mikey got as he looked down and balled his hands into fists.

“I’m joking, Mikey, relax!” I told him as I tried to stop laughing.

Pony added with a giggle, “If it makes you feel better, Mikey, I can start commenting on how cute _you_ are more often.”

Mikey continued to look down uncomfortably while everyone else laughed even more.

Now that the heavy tension was broken up, Dr. D, Ray, and Hot Chimp settled back into the base and then we all had dinner together. It was after we finished eating that Dr. D then went into detail about the news he heard from his informant.

“So the area that my friend told me about is directly west of Battery City, close to where Santa Monica used to be. It borders the city, but ruins of buildings and freeways block any access to Battery City itself.”

My eyes widened. That’s where I first escaped out of Battery City, during the Cleanout. It’s true, there were no roads that went out to the west, and I think that’s why I was able to get out without any BL/ind officials going after me or anyone else that got out from the Western border.

But…it doesn’t make sense. Why is it that when I was there, there were no SCARECROW agents-in-training defending?

“Wait–the Western border? Are you sure that’s where it is?” I asked Dr. D.

He blinked over at me. “Positive. Why?”

I shook my head. “It’s just… that’s the area where I escaped from Battery City. There was nothing dangerous when I was there. None of those agents-in-training, anyway.”

“Right…” Dr. D replied. “Well, I’m told that it’s a relatively new program for SCARECROW Academy students. How long ago did you escape?”

March 23rd, 2019. Now that I think about it…

“Exactly a year ago,” I answered. EXACTLY because today is March 23rd, too.

“Hmm…” Dr. D rubbed his chin. “Maybe they’re sending them out there for a special reason now… Well, if anything, the team is lucky to have you on board since you’re familiar with the area.”

I nodded my head. “Yeah, I was there for a week… It’s just a ghost town–or ghost city–now. And that place is pretty big… so it might take us a long time to find Frank, if he’s there,” I warned the guys. “And if there are agents, there will be a lot of places for them to hide. It’s how I and several other rebels were able to stay in those borderlands for a week without getting caught by officials.”

It was quiet for a few seconds while everyone gathered their thoughts.

“Well, we won’t find out if Frank’s there until we get there. So we might as well pack up, rest, and get going as soon as possible.” It was Mikey who said this as he stood up and started to crack his knuckles.

I smirked up at him. “That’s very optimistic of you.”

He looked down at me with a smile on the side of his mouth. “What can I say? You’ve inspired me.”

I lightly laughed at this. “That’s got to be a first.”

“Not at all,” Ray added. “You’ve kind of influenced everybody at some point. When we thought all was lost, you were a kind of ray of light to show us the way. Like fixing the car and then sacrificing yourself to save us from Korse and even finding me and Mikey two weeks ago. You gave us a chance to hope again.”

Mikey looked over at me. “Ray’s right. If you hadn’t come into the Black Widow stalking me…we’d probably still be back at that mobile home. And if you didn’t have such a big mouth, I probably wouldn’t have wised up.” He said this last sentence with a laugh.

I gave Mikey a somewhat apologetic glance. I still kind of feel bad for the mean things I said to him.

Dr. D smirked in his chair. “Yeah, if you didn’t give me that sad puppy dog look in the van, I probably wouldn’t have looked for clues of Frank’s whereabouts again, either.”

I laughed at this.

“And it’s not just us,” Ray continued. “You got Gerard to sing for you and follow you out into the Zones to look for us when we were in trouble. Both incredible feats. And Frank…you’re really special to him, you know that? That’s why he always fought so hard to save you, and that’s why it was hard for him to say goodbye to you.”

I was speechless as I took this in. I…influenced them? The very people who changed me?

I was now looking down, feeling bashful. I’m not used to this. “Thanks for saying all that, guys. I never thought… I never thought that I could ever make a difference to someone’s life… So thanks, for saying all those things.”

“Dude, are you blushing?” Ray jovially asked.

I looked up and frowned. “Shut up, I’m not!”

The others laughed at me and I just put a palm over my face to hide my rosy cheeks.

After this, we all started to pack. Gear, clothes, water, food, other essentials… This time, we were going in for the long haul. So we had to make sure we were prepared for anything.

Mikey suggested we all get to sleep early to get a good rest. But it was hard for me to go to sleep because I was so excited for the next day. I haven’t felt this kind of hope in my heart for a long time. My chest actually feels full, like it’s about to burst. The sun can’t come up soon enough.

  


The next morning, we got up early, ate breakfast, and soon after, we all got dressed and made last-minute preparations.

I wore the same jeans and boots I’d been wearing for the past two weeks, and the green t-shirt I’d originally worn when I first set out from Sweetwater. We’d all been able to wash our clothes here at Dr. D’s, so I finally felt comfortable in my own clean clothes again.

Dr. D had lent me a brown leather belt holster, so I could have my ray gun at my hip, and matching brown leather elbow and knee pads, which were kind of neat. And seeing as I’m prone to hurting myself by tripping or falling off things, it was a good investment.

My right wrist is still bandaged, although it’s mostly healed. But for further protection, Show Pony lent me some of his black leather gloves. They were fingerless, but at least they fit well and would protect most of my hands. Show Pony had actually been letting me borrow some of his clothes this past week, since he was kind of skinny and liked to wear tight shirts and short shorts. I’m not going to lie, some of his clothes fit me perfectly, which was kind of weird but cool. I had been hanging out with him so much anyway, so it wasn’t really all that awkward.

“Thanks for the gloves. And for helping me practice with my shooting,” I told Show Pony just before we were about to leave. He was wearing a black cut off shirt and these short red shorts, that revealed his bandaged legs.

“It was my pleasure! Now go get 'em tiger!” Show Pony said as he brought me into a crushing embrace.

“Watch your leg, numskull!” Dr. D grumbled as he wheeled close by.

I laughed. “Dr. D’s right. You need to heal up.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Show Pony said as he rolled his eyes and put a hand on his hip.

“I’ll miss you, Pony,” I told him with a smile.

“Aww, I’ll miss you too! You’re fun company.” He winked at me as he said that last phrase.

I laughed and finally turned toward Ray and Mikey, who were also in the main room of clutter.

“Ready to go?” Ray asked me as he shrugged on his black leather jacket.

I nodded my head. “More than ever.”

Mikey had his arms crossed but he was smiling. “Well, let’s hit the road then!”

We quickly brought the bikes out, which were fully packed last night. Dr. D followed us out to the front of the base and gave us a map he charted to get to the Western borderlands. Although, I kind of already know my way around there, so getting lost isn’t an option.

I got on the back of Mikey’s bike again, and put on my helmet. This time he had a silver helmet on, too, and his red Kobra jacket.

“Look alive out there!” Dr. D called out as Mikey and Ray revved up their engines. “And do me a favor. Don’t die!”

“You really need to say that?” Show Pony muttered. “Come back soon!” he cheerfully yelled to us.

“Adios!” It was Hot Chimp who gave us a big wave as she stared at us from behind her huge, pink cat-eye sunglasses.

The three of them are staying behind, in case anything happens to us and we need backup. Hopefully we won’t.

Ray, Mikey, and I waved our goodbyes and finally set out onto the black road again. I was glad to see the desert rush past me again as we went through the numerous hills at high speed.

  


Hold on, Frank. We’re almost there…

  


This time as we set out toward Battery City, it seemed to take a long time. At least, there were no battles, and the western borderlands of Battery City were pretty far away from Dr. D’s base. But the long drive gave me time to think.

As I sat here clinging onto Mikey again, I couldn’t help but think about how he’s almost back to normal, with this cobra on his jacket staring me in the face anyway. It’s been nice, having him smile and laugh again and loosen up. And he hasn’t had any nightmares since we’ve been at Dr. D’s. At least, he hasn’t woken up screaming anymore. Which is an incredible improvement.

Still… there’s something not quite right. Our silences still don’t have as much ease as they used to. And I can’t help but feel that he’s still closing himself off. Like how he was talking to me about how he’s worried that I’m going to turn into “someone like him”. Whatever that means.

Maybe I’m just thinking too much.

After all, Ray said that he woke up not remembering the last six months of his life. That probably means that he’s the person he was six months before I met him. And maybe that person was different from the Mikey I met.

After all, I’m pretty different from the person I was ten months ago. I was still just a teenage girl who hated the desert, who wanted to be back home in Battery City, to be with my sister, and longed to wear makeup and skirts again. I wasn’t independent, I was scared of BL/ind, I let others take care of me, and I had no idea how to shoot a ray gun. But look at me now: I became a Killjoy, I’m a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl who hasn’t worn makeup in a year, I’m not scared to be on my own anymore, I’ve fought and killed many SCARECROW agents, including Korse, I know how to drive stickshift, and now I’m on the back of a motorcycle headed back to Battery City with a ray gun strapped to my hip–which I actually know how to use now.

Maybe Mikey was just someone really different back then, too.

Ugh, whatever.

Mikey’s already getting back to normal. And eventually, it’ll be like it was before. We’ll find Frank. And then we can find Gerard, if he’s alive. And I think he might be. And then we’ll all be together and be happy and it’ll all be like before. Right?

At least Ray has seemed to stay the same. I don’t have to worry about him. I looked over at him and saw that he had a complacent smile on his face as he rode on his Harley. I quietly laughed. Thank God that Ray is still the same.

  


I first noticed when we got close to the Western Borderlands because the desert hills, the joshua trees, and the tumbleweeds all faded away. Now, we were getting to flat ground and dark green shrubs that sprouted from the dirt. There were small remnants of what used to be palm trees lining parts of the road. And then soon enough, we approached the ruins of dozens of old buildings and skyscrapers.

From far away, it looked just like a small old city, with a haze keeping up the shadowy image of those decapitated buildings. But as we got closer, we could see how they were blasted, crooked, split open, and crumbling. Those that used to have many glass windows were now gutted, the glass gone and leaving only a skeleton of what was once a grand building. The road began to get really rough, cracked, and dust covered most of it.

“Be careful around here,” I called to both Mikey and Ray. “The road’s a little unstable.”

We rolled slowly through the small, broken streets of this abandoned city. I looked around at the buildings, trying to peer closely at them, in case Frank was around here somewhere. There were so many buildings… he could be in any one of them.

“Hey, you should stop,” I told Mikey as I tapped him on the shoulder.

“Why?” he asked as he kept going.

“Because Frank could be around here but we won’t know if we just drive past these buildings!” I argued back.

“Okay, I’ll stop…” Mikey answered as he pressed the brakes and slowly came to a halt. Ray also stopped.

I took my helmet off and breathed in deep before calling out, “Frank!”

“What the hell are you doing?!” Mikey whipped around, his helmet on, so I couldn’t tell how angry he was.

“I’m calling out, so that he can hear us. You don’t expect him to just be out in the open, do you?” I argued.

I feel like I could see Mikey frown even though all I saw was the black shiny visor of his helmet.

“There are agents around here. It’s not exactly a smart idea to be going around yelling and giving away our position,” he told me with a voice that sounded like it was really restrained.

“Oh,” I stupidly replied. I felt my cheeks get warm. I’m an idiot, of course I should have thought about that.

“We’re really eager to find Frank, too, but we have to stay alive first,” Ray told me from the side. He was giving me a crooked smile.

I looked down. “You’re right. Sorry guys, I–”

“What was that?” Mikey asked as he sat up straighter. Ray also looked around. I hadn’t heard anything, so I looked around, too.

*PEW*

Some piece of scrap metal on the ground near us had reflected that sound. I looked up to my right and I saw a bright shine.

*PEW*

This time, the front of Ray’s bike had been hit and reflected off of.

We all looked up against the bright mid-day sun, and in a crumbling building to my right, I saw something glint and then fade away into the shadows.

“Up there!” I said as I pointed towards the building.

“Let’s get these bikes out of range!” Mikey told Ray as he started the bike forward.

I put my helmet back on and then gripped my ray gun in my right hand.

Time to fight.


	17. Chapter 17

Mikey and Ray quickly parked their bikes in the sand behind a giant, fallen wall of concrete while I kept my eyes up to watch for the shooter hiding in the building across from us. After the engines cut off, we all got off the bikes and took our helmets off.

“You think he’s the only one up there?” Mikey asked as he put on his aviator sunglasses.

“I don’t know,” Ray said as he rolled up his black jacket sleeves. “But if there are more, they’re probably going to try and sneak up on us. We’ll have to be extra cautious.”

“Aren’t these the agents-in-training?” I asked as I started stretching my arms behind my back.

Ray turned to me. “Most likely.”

“Then they should be easy to take out, right?” I replied.

“I’m not so sure…” Mikey remarked as he cracked his wrists. He looked over at me. “Don’t underestimate them just because they’re not full-fledged SCARECROW agents. Remember what D said? They’re out here to pass some test. What if passing the test makes them official agents?”

I nodded. “You have a point.”

Ray walked up to the edge of the wall we were hiding behind. “Keep your eyes open…” he quietly warned us as he looked up towards that same building we saw the lasers come from.

It was eerily quiet as we waited. I could only hear us breathe.

*CLINK*

The sound came from our right, where a bunch of metal framing was buried in the sand. I held my ray gun up and looked closely towards that direction.

*PEW*

I looked back behind me at Ray and Mikey. It was Ray’s blue ray gun that was smoking after he fired off. Just a second later, there was a crash in one of the windows of the building.

“Almost got him,” Ray muttered as he kept a narrowed eye focused to the window.

*CLINK*

Again, the sound came from where that metal framing was, and dust was blowing next to it. I looked up to where Ray shot, and then I looked around me. I thought I could see a shadow move among another lower building half a block down to the right from us.

“There’s something over there,” I hushed to the guys as I pointed.

Mikey came up close next to me and peered in the direction in which I pointed.

“We have to do something to draw them out,” I said.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Mikey replied as he started to look around the space we were in. Then he looked at me. “Do you think you can fit through one of those small openings back there?”

I looked to where Mikey pointed with his ray gun. We were in a square surrounded by crumbled ruins, and bits of concrete and steel beams crookedly supported each other to make the perimeter of the square. In between those bits of steel and concrete were slim gaps leading to the outside.

“Probably,” I answered Mikey as I looked back at him.

Ray looked back at us. “What are you thinking, Mikey?”

“If Leya gets outside to shoot from another position, whoever’s in that building will be open to attack from at least one vantage point. If I shoot, since they already know we’re here, Leya will be able to catch them by surprise. And if that doesn’t work and Leya shoots, they’ll no doubt retaliate. Giving me a chance to shoot them more accurately,” Mikey explained.

Ray frowned. “That’s a bit dangerous, don’t you think?”

“Well, we’re going to be stuck here all day unless we get them to come out,” I told him. “And I’ll be fine.”

Mikey looked between me and Ray, then nodded at me. “Leya, just make sure that when you get out, you get behind something that covers you from gunfire. We still don’t know how many there are out there.”

I nodded. “Got it.”

“I still think it’s kind of risky…” Ray muttered.

*PEW*

Another shot had come from the building of the first shooter and hit our concrete wall.

“We don’t really have much of another choice,” Mikey told Ray with a sigh.

Ray sighed, too. “Well, let’s just try and make this quick.”

A few seconds later, I made my way over to the perimeter of our little square and hoisted my legs through one of the gaps. My feet were on the ground on the other side, so all I had to do was keep my hands gripped on the beam above me and carefully guide the upper half of my body through this gap that was less than ten inches high. As soon as I got through, I turned around and gave the guys a thumb’s up signal.

I walked forward, crouching behind whatever I could, until I got to a crumbling wall of the building next to us. From this angle, I had a direct view of those two buildings the shooters were in and of the wall Mikey and Ray were behind. I don’t think anyone saw me get across here because Ray had continued to shoot up at the first attacker and no one shot at me.

I crawled over to the edge of the wall and aimed my gun, waiting. After a few seconds, I saw a laser beam shoot out from Mikey and Ray’s area to the corner of the building in my right field of vision. Like clockwork, someone emerged from the corner window of the second floor and shot down at the broken wall.

Wasting no time, I rose up slightly and aimed with both of my hands on the gun, keeping only one eye open. I shot and hit the shooter in what appeared to be the neck or the shoulder. But they merely stumbled. A second after, I saw light beams headed my way. I dropped down to the dusty ground, feeling more beams hit against my very small wall of defense.

I heard more laser beams shoot out for a few more seconds, and then not so much anymore. I turned my head and slowly rose up to peek over my wall. The shooter in the right building was gone. The shooter on the left was still aiming for Mikey and Ray, and there appeared to be two more shooters in that same building, just on higher levels.

“Leya!” I heard a whisper far to my right. I whipped my head in that direction and saw Mikey looking at me through the gaps of the barricade we had put ourselves in. “Get over here, quick!”

I looked up again in apprehension toward the shooters. They weren’t shooting at me anymore, so I guess this was the chance to get up and run. I took in a quick breath and stood up to a crouch so I could run back while concealing myself a little.

Halfway there, I heard the lasers shoot out near me, so I dove down to the ground onto my stomach behind a piece of concrete that was as large as a phone booth.

“I’ll tell you when to run,” Mikey called out as he looked at me, raising his sunglasses to rest on top of his dark hair. He then directed his eyes to the buildings while I stayed here on my hands and knees, waiting for my chance to run.

Ten seconds later, Mikey turned back to me and beckoned with his right hand for me to come forward. I scrambled to my feet and made a full-on sprint toward him through the dirt and ducked once I reached the gap. Mikey moved out of the way as I stuck my legs through the beams and then my torso. He helped me by keeping a hand under my back and grabbed one of my hands to help me stand upright once I got all the way through.

“Did the plan work?” I asked, feeling out of breath.

Mikey quickly nodded as he let go of my hand. “Yeah, we got a couple of agents down, but more showed up, so it’s still kind of a standoff situation. But I figured it would be better for you to be back here, where you’re safe. Are you okay?”

He was looking at me with this weird kind of nervousness in his eyes. It was a mix between fear and relief.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m good,” I replied with a smile as I tucked back some of my hair that had been thrown over my eyes.

Mikey breathed out a deep exhale. “That’s good.” He then smiled and put his sunglasses back over his eyes.

We both walked up to the other side of the square to meet up with Ray, who was still keeping the other shooters at bay.

“We can’t let them keep shooting at us like this,” he said as he shot his ray gun again.

“I know,” Mikey replied as he put his hands on his hips and started pacing. “We gotta get up there and take them out ourselves. They have some kind of armor. So it’s not going to be easy to hit them from this vantage point.”

I peeked a look out at the building across from us. For now, no one was shooting.

“Okay, so the three of us have to sprint across that block to get to the building. We’ll go one at a time. That way, one of us attacks first, then the second and the third fire away at the agents to draw away from the other runners.” Mikey paused. “I’ll go first.”

“Mikey, no!” Ray whispered. “Let me go first. You both are better shots than me, anyway.”

“Ray…” I started, feeling worried for him.

He looked over at me with a bright smile. “Don’t worry, Leya. I’ll be fine.”

Mikey nodded. “We’ll be right behind you.”

Ray nodded to us and slowly peered back. We all had our guns up and ready.

Two seconds later, Ray got up and started to sprint as he fired up towards the closest shooters. As expected, the agents up in those windows shot back.

Mikey quickly put a hand on my shoulder. “Leya, go now! And don’t look back!”

I didn’t hesitate a second and ran across the block while shooting out at some of the other agents that aimed at Ray. Some lasers had hit the ground near my feet as I ran, but someone–either Ray or Mikey–quickly got the agents that shot at me.

I looked ahead and saw Ray get to the corner of the building, where he already got started on breaking into one of the floor level windows. I shot my ray gun forward to help him out and after three shots, the glass shattered.

“Come on!” said Ray as he beckoned me forward.

I glanced backward to see Mikey still crouched behind that small crumbled wall, getting shot at.

“We have to help Mikey!” I called out to Ray.

I stood out to the side of the building and yelled upwards, knowing that some of the shooters were right above us. “Hey! Why don’t you losers see if you can get us down here!”

That gave Mikey enough time to sprint halfway across the block while the other agents were distracted. Ray had stepped in next to me with a large shard of glass to work as a shield as we both moved in random zig zags down here. A second later, the agent in the window above us got shot and fell forward.

“Oh shit–Leya get back!” Ray yelled as he pulled me with him inside the building.

I heard the loudest crash on the concrete. The agent that fell didn’t get up. I looked out and saw that he had been wearing all black, and he had on a shiny black helmet that had cracked at the impact of the fall. He also had shiny shoulder plates and what looked like black armor on his back. I’m not used to seeing SCARECROW agents dressed like this…

Mikey got here a second later and sprinted inside. “You guys are crazy! You could have been killed!” he gasped out as he tried to catch his breath.

“We’re all okay, though,” Ray answered as he walked forward and put a hand on Mikey’s shoulder. “The hard part’s over. So smile.”

Ray was giving Mikey his gentle smile, and Mikey made the smallest grimace of a smirk.

After this, we knew that the only way to go was up. There were at least two more agents in this building. We needed to get rid of them for good.

The three of us walked up the stairwell, seeing as there was no electricity working in this building. We tried to be as quiet as we could, in case we got ambushed first.

The linoleum floor was so dusty and moldy, the hallways were made of half-rotted wood, and even some of the floors had caved in. Only this steel stairwell seemed to stay up strong.

As we reached the landing of the fifth floor, which let in golden sunlight from windows on the walls, Mikey suddenly stopped and looked up.

“What is it?” Ray asked.

“Shh!” Mikey had whispered as he kept his eyes up above him.

I darted my eyes between Mikey, Ray, and the ceiling. It sounded like there was something moving above us.

*CRASH*

I darted my eyes to the right but I was too slow.

“Ah!” I yelled as I felt myself get hit by something solid and heavy. It was one of the agents that had crashed in through the window and tackled me down onto the stairs behind us.

“Leya!” Mikey and Ray yelled.

*CRASH*   
*CRASH*   
*CRASH*

It sounded like more agents had come in, but I had only a half second to focus on that because this agent wouldn’t get off me. The steel stairs had banged up my back pretty good, so I pulled up my knees and kicked out at this guy with both feet, launching him into the air to fall behind me.

I flipped over onto my stomach and got up to see the agent getting up from the ground. I shot my ray gun at him, but he crouched out of the way and jumped down to the next level of stairs.

“Hey, get back here!” I yelled as I followed down the stairs.

He shot at me from below, but kept missing. I decided to rush over to get to the corner of the stairwell, to draw him out. Just as predicted, he came up above the stairs, and I shot as his helmet came into view.

That didn’t do anything, but break the shell a bit. Blonde hair poked out of the hole I’d made in his helmet. He continued to dash up at me and went for a direct attack this time. But just as he got up to me, he reached a hand up to his helmet and ripped it off.

Oh my god.

It was this split second of shock that let him grab at my shoulders and push me down the hallway to the left, until he slammed me against one of the walls.

I raised up my gun, but he had one arm pinning me by my right elbow and the other pushed against my throat.

“Zack! Stop!” I gritted out against his strong grip.

Zack was a former classmate of mine in high school. We had all the same classes since 10th grade until graduation. He wasn’t exactly a friend, but you could say we knew each other pretty well. He was glaring at me now, his fringed, pointy blonde hair looking limp as it fell above his forehead. His blue eyes were dark and glaring with what I can only assume is rage. His face looks sharper, rougher around the edges, and his strong jaw line and cheek bones seem more pronounced than I remember.

“So it _is_ you, Leya,” he said as he narrowed his gaze at me. “God, you disgust me.”

“Get off me!” I yelled out as I struggled again and kicked out at him. He responded by sending a knee into my stomach.

I would have doubled over if he wasn’t holding me up with his arm’s vice over my throat and collar bone.

“This is what the great Number 3 student of District 4 High School becomes? A Killjoy?!” He spat at me. “I heard the stories. I heard how you ran away from home. I didn’t believe it at first. The girl who always showed me up since 10th grade, a rebel? No way.” He was shaking his head now, while keeping a creepy gaze on me.

I don’t remember him being this strong or this temperamental. And his arms weren’t nearly as buff as they are now. He was just a lanky, easygoing guy in high school. What the fuck happened to him?

“Zack, I don’t want to hurt you. But if you don’t get off me right now, I’ll fucking shoot you!” I shouted into his face.

He shook his head and intensified the vicious look on his face. “You know the only reason I got into the elite class of SCARECROW Academy was because you never showed up? What should have been a proud moment for me was tarnished by the fact that it only highlighted your betrayal. They just moved down the line to the next best student: me. Some honor, huh? To forever be known as second best to you!”

I rolled my eyes. “God… would you just get over it? None of that even matters anymore!” I twisted my right arm out of his grip and shot out at his stomach.

“Grrr!” Zack shrank back. The laser just grazed his side, but I took this chance to punch him in the face and kick the gun out of his hands. I think I might just have to beat some sense into him.

He struck back at me, but only got part of my shoulder. I used the defensive kung fu I learned this week to block all his next blows.

“Zack, stop!” I yelled again. “We don’t need to fight!”

He bent down to pick up his gun. “Well, there’s no way I’m letting you keep your life as a Killjoy. So you either come back with me as a criminal or die as a traitor.”

Ugh, where’s the power glove when you need it? I left it back in my bag, at the bike. I didn’t figure that anyone I fought couldn’t be taken down with a ray gun.

The room we were in had a lot of steel beams and old office furniture in it. I put my ray gun back in its holster and reached behind to start throwing things at Zack as he advanced toward me. I threw chairs, old machines, and even desk parts, but that didn’t phase him.

“Number 3,” Zack muttered. “And after all that… this is what you became. One of _them_.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about!” I yelled back as I grabbed a small steel pole off the ground. “If you think Killjoys are the bad guys, then–just let me explain everything. We don’t have to fight.”

“Says the girl who keeps throwing things at me…” Zack let out a small, dark laugh. “Why don’t you just shoot me? That’s what you came here to do, right? To kill agents like me and my friends.” He continued to step forward and lowered his gun to the side.

“I’m not going to kill you,” I repeated. “Please, Zack. Just listen to me. And then we can go our separate ways in peace.”

Zack gave me a strange look as he stopped in his tracks. It was kind of… regretful?

“We already went our separate ways.” He looked down. “You know, I was hoping that at SCARECROW Academy, you and I would change. That maybe instead of seeing each other as rivals, you could see me as… heh, forget it.”

I thought back to that time in high school. At first, the competition between Zack and I was playful. When either of us was ahead in rank, we would tease the other about it. It became a healthy rivalry, as well as motivation to do well in school. But then when I was on pills during my last year, I dedicated myself to surpassing everyone in the school, not just Zack. It wasn’t even a matter of competition anymore. It was just me trying to reach perfection, which I had become obsessed with. And by that time, I couldn’t joke or be playful to save my life. By that time, Zack and I weren’t friends anymore.

“I think we both have changed, anyway,” I told Zack. “I’m not the same empty girl you remember from two years ago. And you… what happened to you?”

He raised his gun up again and gave me a glare. “Nothing ‘happened’ to me. I just picked up where you left off! You’re the one who became a Killjoy–I should be asking _you_ what the hell happened!”

“Leya!” It was Mikey who had hollered and came running down the crumbling hallway.

Zack whipped around to look toward Mikey, and I took this opportunity to swing the steel pole in my hands and strike him in the back of the head.

“Ugh…” Zack groaned as he sank to his knees, and then face-first onto the floor.

I dropped the pole and finally relaxed.

Mikey came bounding across the room with his ray gun pointed at Zack and ready to shoot.

“Don’t!” I cried out as I stepped forward.

Mikey looked over at me with bent eyebrows. “…Why?”

I looked down toward Zack. When he was unconscious, with his bright blonde hair fallen over his darker blonde eyebrows, he looked like the nice boy I used to know in high school. “I… I know him.”

Mikey’s eyes widened under his raised eyebrows.

I sighed, “Look. I just can’t bring myself to kill him. I can’t…”

Mikey nodded. “I get it.”

“Did you get all the agents up there?” I asked, to change the subject.

“Yeah. I think that was everyone in this building. I’m not sure… but for now at least, we’re good.” Mikey came close to me and looked me up and down. “You’re not hurt, right?”

I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

We heard footsteps from the direction of the hallway and turned our heads. It was just Ray running down the hall.

“You guys good?” Ray asked as he put his hands on his hips.

“Yeah,” Mikey replied as he fully turned back to Ray.

“Then let’s get going,” Ray continued. “We got a lot more ground to cover.”

“We will,” Mikey said. He turned back to me. “Well, we have to go now.”

I looked down at Zack’s unconscious body. “We should… make sure he can’t follow us.”

“He’s still alive?” Ray questioned as he came close.

A slight panic went through my spine as I wondered if maybe I had hit him too hard. I quickly crouched down to Zack’s body and rolled him over so that he was on his back. I put two of my fingers to his throat, and after a second, I felt a pulse under them.

I sighed in relief.

“Hey, we should go–” Ray started.

“Just hold on,” Mikey shushed him.

I decided to search Zack’s pockets. Aha, just what I thought I’d find: silicon cuffs. I dragged Zack across the room to one of the pipes that went through the floor and the ceiling. I cuffed one link to the pipe and the other to his right hand. I don’t want to leave him completely defenseless when he wakes up, in case no one comes looking for him anytime soon. I stared at his face. He looks like he’s pouting, just like he always did when he’d fall asleep in Calculus. It made me laugh on the inside.

I touched my palm to his hand. Maybe someday we’ll be able to be friends again. Or maybe never again.

“What was that about?” Ray asked in confusion as I returned to meet him and Mikey.

“He was an old classmate of mine,” I replied as I looked past him. “Let’s get going!”

I was the first to walk out into the hallway, and we all quickly made it out of the building and back to the bikes without running into anymore agents-in-training.

“We might just have to split up to look for Frank,” I told the guys.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Mikey asked as he turned back towards me with his arms crossed as he held his silver helmet.

“We’re not going to find Frank by going to each building one by one. That’ll take forever,” I argued with my hands on my hips.

“What if we get lost?” Ray asked as he strapped on his helmet.

“Easy,” I replied, and then pointed up. “See that building with the blue grafitti on it that kind of looks like a smiley face?”

The others looked up at the building. It was the tallest one and closest to the gate that led to Battery City.

“We’ll meet up there when we’re done with this area. There’s no way of getting lost,” I continued. “You can see it from all over and it’s no farther than half a mile from here.”

“…that still sounds kind of risky. And unnecessary,” Mikey said as he tapped his fingers on the helmet in his hands.

I frowned at him. “I’ll be fine by myself.”

He looked at me with a narrowed eye. “What if you meet more classmates?”

I sighed. “Then… I’ll just be smarter this time around and shoot before I figure that out.”

His eyes widened. “You’re serious?”

I looked down. “There are only three top students from each graduating class in a high school that get to join the SCARECROW Academy elite class. I was one of the three from my high school.”

I waited to see Mikey and Ray’s reaction. I wasn’t sure I’d ever told them about that part of my past. Ray gave this slow rise of his eyebrows and Mikey just stared at me in wonderment. He was about to ask a question, so I decided to continue.

“That guy up there, the one who attacked me first, he took my spot after I failed to attend SCARECROW Academy. I know the other two students, but who’s to say they’re even out here? And I never cared much for people outside my grade, so everyone else will be a stranger to me. So that’s that about recognizing classmates. Besides, if they’re willing to kill me without hesitation, then that means that I can’t hesitate again.”

It’s quiet for a while.

“Well, I’ll go off in this direction. You guys go that way,” Ray said as he pointed forward for us. He hopped onto his Harley, quickly turned it on, and drove down the corner by himself.

Mikey put his helmet on and sat on his bike. “Get on,” he told me.

“Are you going to drop me off so we can cover more area?” I asked as I put on my helmet.

“I’m not leaving you by yourself. Team effort, remember?” he told me as he kept his visor open.

I frowned. “Really? You gonna pull that on me?”

“Just repeating your own words,” he replied with a smirk.

“Well, fine. We’ll go together. Just so you don’t worry your little head about me,” I muttered as I got on the back of the bike. Mikey got the engine going and we sped off onto the road again.


	18. Chapter 18

Mikey and I drove from building to building in a 16-block square. We stopped and looked into each building that looked somewhat habitable. But building after building, there was no sign of Frank. Or any agents, either, for that matter.

“If he’s not over here, we might have to go farther west, away from these tall buildings,” I told Mikey as we entered into yet another building that seemed to be completely empty. This one had a crumbled stairwell and a completely dilapidated elevator. There was no way of getting up past the ground level.

“Why are you in such a rush?” Mikey irritably replied.

“We’re so close to finding Frank. I don’t see why we should waste any precious time,” I told him as I continued to walk through the dusty, crumbling corridor we were in.

Mikey was quiet for a bit. “Don’t you think we should get to that one building you told Ray to meet us at? He has to be done with his section by now, too.”

“And he might have found Frank!” I excitedly realized.

“Don’t be so loud,” Mikey hushed at me. “There could still be agents lurking around here.”

“Sorry…” I groaned out.

It had to be like the hundredth time that Mikey told me to be quiet since we’d been here. Granted, he had the right idea about keeping ourselves as hidden as possible from the enemy. But I think calling out for Frank would save us time and help him hear us. If he was here.There was nothing in this old brown building. A small part of me was starting to wonder if Frank was anywhere near here…

Mikey got on his bike and started it up before I got on.It only took us a few minutes to get to the building with the blue graffiti on it. All you had to do was travel toward it from wherever you were in this city, since all streets led to it eventually. It was the largest building in this district, but half of it was completely ruined. I’m not even sure how it stood up so well. But this is the building that has the most direct access to the city.

Mikey stopped near the front of the building, where Ray’s bike was–but no Ray. I gracefully hopped off the bike for once and then took off my helmet.

“You think he went up?” I asked Mikey as I turned to him.

He looked up out of his aviator sunglasses. “I don’t know… Maybe there were more agents here.”

I cleared my throat and marched forward. “Well, then what are we waiting for?”

“Can you calm down for a second?” Mikey asked as he quickly followed me.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Calm down? _Calm down?_ How have I not been calm this entire time?

Mikey looked frustrated and he took his sunglasses off to rub the bridge of his nose. “Quit rushing into everything. Ugh, you stress me out…”

“How am I stressing you out?” I asked, raising my voice.

Mikey scowled. “Well, first of all, you wanted to leave right away from Dr. D’s, and then when we got here, you immediately started shouting out Frank’s name, letting the enemy know where we were, and then you almost got yourself killed–”

“Oh, _I_ almost got myself killed?” I scoffed. “Well, gee, next time, I’ll just tell the enemy to ease up on the hostility. I’m sure they’ll listen—since I’m the one responsible for almost getting killed, not them. Right?”

“Look, it’s not that—you’re being really careless, and that’s dangerous. You’ve gotten so obsessed with finding Frank, that you’re not even thinking of your own well-being.”

I put my hands on my hips and gave Mikey a sarcastic smirk. “What do you want me to do, Mikey? Stay home? Cower behind you and Ray and let you guys do all the fighting for me like some helpless little princess?”

“That would actually ease my state of mind,” he snapped back with a twitch of his eyebrow.

I glared at him. “I already told you. No matter what, I’m finding Frank. And Gerard, if he’s still alive. Even if I have to do it alone. So quit with the sexist overprotective bullshit! I thought you said I was ‘no damsel in distress’ last night.”

“Well, I still don’t think you’re a damsel in distress. But you’ve been acting like an overexcited puppy since the minute we got here,” Mikey retorted with a condescending stare.

God, what is _with_ him?

“Alright, that’s it…“ I said as I shook my head and walked really close up to Mikey. "What the hell is wrong with you? The old you never got this irritated or protective over me. _The old you_ used to let me go into battle without much of an argument. Yeah, you used to get pissed off at me when I got hurt, but I don’t even have so much as a scratch on me right now. The old you–”

Mikey inhaled sharply. "If you say anything else about 'the old me’ I swear I’m gonna–”

“What? What are you going to do?” I sassed back. “Just tell me. Why are you so angry?”

Mikey didn’t say anything back for a few seconds as he looked down toward his feet. “Because you’re acting just like Frank.”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise as I stared up at him. “What?”

Mikey looked over at me. “Dr. D mentioned it… and now I totally see it. You two really are a lot alike. You’re both reckless, and you’re stubborn, and overly optimistic, and you don’t listen to anyone but yourselves when you want to go off and rescue somebody.”

“So? Why would that make you angry?” I asked, with a smaller voice this time.

“Because… It just reminds me of everything I hate about him.“

I looked at Mikey in confusion. 'Hate?’ How could he hate Frank?

"Frank was obsessed with rescuing Gerard. So much so that he couldn’t wait to go after him. He didn’t even bother to say goodbye. I was so angry at him for leaving. It wasn’t enough that my brother was gone—he had to go and disappear, too. At the time when I probably needed him near me the most. And then months passed. And he never came back. And I hated him for it. For all his recklessness, his optimism, his stubborn attitude–everything that took him away from us. I hated myself, too. For not being able to stop him.”

All this new rage I’d seen from Mikey since I found him two weeks ago… was this the root of it?

Mikey scoffed. "I should have stopped you, too. But you’re kind of good at making inspirational speeches, and then Dr. D was saying you were just like Frank, and Ray supported you, and even though I was so mad at Frank all this time, I still really wanted to find him, too. So how could I say no?”

“Listen to me, Mikey,” I said as I held eye contact with him. "I may have a lot in common with Frank, but I’m not going to disappear. And I haven’t got hurt yet! Feel free to get pissed off otherwise! But for right now… unless I ask you for help, don’t worry about me. We’re a team. Not a princess and an escort. _**We have each other’s backs**_ ,” I told him with a closed smile from the side of my mouth.

Before Mikey could say anything in reply, we heard something loud come from inside the building.

“Ray!” I exclaimed as I let go of Mikey and ran inside the building. He quickly followed after me.

“Ahhh!” The scream was followed by the sounds of lasers firing. I’m pretty sure that was Ray’s voice.

“We gotta get up there quick!” Mikey gasped out as he ran ahead of me up the stairs. I was running up the stairs, too, but I was getting tired a lot faster than Mikey was. He looked back toward me.

“You good?” he asked.

I was about to reply, but I saw an agent come up from behind him on the landing. I quickly raised up my gun and shot at the agent’s neck. Mikey whipped back around and lunged at the agent to send a finishing shot under his chin.

Now, that’s what I call teamwork!

Mikey continued to run in strides that were twice as long as mine. We heard what sounded like fighting noises, and I followed Mikey into a large, stripped room of concrete. Ray was currently battling off two agents in here.

*PEW*

Mikey had shot at one of the agents and hit his arm. I ran in and shot at the other guy’s back. The laser just reflected off of his armor, but Ray had turned around to rush him with his shoulder first, pushing him into the wall behind them.

“About time you guys showed up!” Ray grunted as he took a finishing shot at the same agent he was fighting.

At the end of the room was a door that led into another room, and two more agents had just stepped in. I ran up next to Ray to hold off their shots as we ducked behind crumbled remains of the walls to defend ourselves with.

“Ray! Leya!” Mikey shouted as he ran forward and disarmed the two agents with kicks and punches.

“I got this,” he told us as he shot into the back of one agent’s neck. “Check the other rooms for more!”

“How many do you think are here?” I asked Ray as we edged into the next room. It was empty and the floorboards were chewed up. There was a wooden staircase at one corner and a doorway in the opposite wall.

“I don’t know… I got here maybe ten minutes ago, and I just stayed inside to wait, since I didn’t want to be out in the open,” Ray told me as he quietly walked the floor. “But then out of nowhere, three of them rushed me. And a few minutes later, you guys came around.”

*CLICK*

An agent had just appeared in the doorway and started to shoot toward me and Ray. I ran toward the staircase and got to higher ground while Ray darted for the other corner as he shot at the agent. A laser had hit the agent’s elbow, which caused his arm to jerk. But he had still been shooting and hit just above where I was. That would have been fine if the ceiling hadn’t started to crack and crumble right there.

“Oh no…” I whispered out to myself. A terrible groaning noise filled the room as I saw the ceiling warp and seem to cave in.

“Leya, get out of the–”

Ray’s words of caution were cut off by the massive collapse of the ceiling’s wood and plaster constructs into this room. I had no choice but to run up the staircase as pounds of dust, plaster and wood threatened to rain onto my head.

I coughed out as I got onto the next floor, bending over against the wall.

“Leya!” It was muffled, but I could hear Ray beyond the collapsed ceiling that separated me from that lower room. “We’re gonna find a way to get to you–don’t worry!”

“I’m okay, Ray!” I yelled back.

“Not for long, you aren’t,” I heard a deep, masculine voice say from several feet to my right.

I whipped my head around and saw an agent with their ray gun pointed at me.

“Come and get it, then,” I growled out as I raised my ray gun and shot out at the guy. He just ran forward in the corridor.

“You’re gonna have to do better than that, sweetie!” he taunted as he lunged at me.

He was such a broad guy, there was almost no way to dodge him in this small corridor. So I waited until the last moment, and flattened myself against the wall as he came barreling through. Still, he caught onto one of my legs and tried to pull me down.

“Get off me!” I yelled as I shot out at his helmet while trying to kick him off. I kicked the ray gun out of his hand, but his helmet blocked my shots, and he had yanked really hard on my boot to send me hitting the floor with my hip first.

“Grr…” I growled out in pain. I reached up and shot at his hand.

“Ow!” he yelped as he shook his gloved hand off.

I took this opportunity to scramble up to my feet and start running. With this guy, speed and distance were the only things that would help me beat him. He’s too big for me to take on in hand-to-hand combat, and his stupid armor is blocking most of the vital targets.

“Get back here!” he yelled as he ran after me.

I quickly turned into a doorway, and this room was empty, with just the bare concrete wall constructs standing. I found a window and opened it to climb out onto a small landing. I stood just out of view as I waited for the agent to come running into the room.

Below me on this building are several landings outside of the windows, which serve as walkways that lead to other parts of the building. Although now they’re mostly ruined and reduced to their cement foundation, like the one I was standing on.

“Where’d you go hiding?” the big agent bellowed in the empty room.

I edged myself close to the window, and tried to peek inside without revealing myself. Why am I having so much trouble taking on this goon? It’s that fucking armor… If he didn’t have the armor, then he would have been dead easy.

He walked toward the window, which I left slightly open. I turned back onto the wall to hide again and edged a few inches away from the window. I heard heavy footsteps get louder as they approached. I got my ray gun poised up near my chest.

And then I heard nothing. Silence.

I waited and inched close to the window again.

*CRASH*

The agent had jumped through the window, glass and all. Before I could do any damage with my ray gun, he lunged out and hit me with so much force that I fell from the edge of the landing.

Luckily there was another landing on the floor below us, so I only fell a little more than ten feet onto the next one. But it hurt like a bitch. I landed on my back with a big thud and my ray gun had flown out of my hand, clattering to a stop about twenty feet away.

Before I could completely gather myself from the pain in my back, the agent jumped down from the higher level. I rolled myself out of the way just in time to dodge him, but he rushed at me again. It was when I rolled quickly that I realized that this landing wasn’t flat, but slanted. What if this thing goes down crumbling, too?

I clumsily got up to my feet and looked around for any bright ideas. My ray gun was too far away and there was only about 100 feet of square area on this semi-circular concrete landing. There was nothing out here I could use as a weapon and beyond the edge, I just saw the sky and the horizon of the broken borderlands.

“I’ve had enough of this cat-and-mouse game, Killjoy,” the agent trainee told me. “It’s time for you to die.”

He ran at me, and I knew he was going to try and tackle me now, probably either choke me out, or push me off this building. My heartbeat quickened, but I mentally urged myself to calm down.

As soon as the guy came dangerously close to me, I dropped down to a squat and reached out for his legs. As predicted, the idiot tumbled down over me as I held onto his legs. I was about to get up off the ground when the guy grabbed at my left arm and threw me over him. I used my legs to push at him, so then we both went rolling down the slanted landing.

From the corner of my eye I saw some steel coil rods sticking out of the broken concrete near the edge of the building. As the agent’s weight kept us tumbling, I stuck my left arm out and grabbed onto one rod as tight as I could, until my palm almost seemed to want to tear. The agent tried to hold onto my other arm, but I kicked him off with all my might. His momentum kept him going until he toppled off the edge of the landing. A few seconds later, I heard a sickening thud.

Finally, I could breathe.

I rolled myself over and away from the edge and flopped down onto my stomach, just catching my breath on the cement.

*CLICK*

I heard a noise behind me and whipped my head around to see another black-clad agent trainee emerge from just inside the building. I clambered to get my ray gun from my hip holster, but I remembered it wasn’t there.

The agent started to walk closer. Shit.

I placed my palms on the ground to try and support myself to get up quickly–

*PEW*

I felt everything within me shudder. My heart stopped and my breath wouldn’t come out of my throat.

Then the agent fell forward, first on his knees, and then to the side.

But I couldn’t focus on that, because all I could see was that someone behind him had killed him for me.

  
  


And it wasn’t Mikey or Ray.

  
  


It was a man with short, dark, slightly messy hair. And a raggedy, torn outfit of dusty black pants and a dusty black shirt with yellow sleeves. His skin looked tanned, but it was probably due to all the dust and black grime that accented his face and neck. A tattooed neck.

I stood up, to get a better look at him. He hadn’t moved or said anything. He just stood in place while he lowered his ray gun. It was a bright green ray gun.

I looked at his face. He had green eyes under naturally arched eyebrows, or were they a bit brown? And a scruffy, well defined jaw, with a scar running from the right edge of his mouth.

I took a step forward, tentatively.

He finally looked at me, into my eyes, and searched them.

I took this time to stray from his face and observe the tattoos on his neck: a scorpion on one side and a ribbon trailing around the other side. And down on his heavily tattooed left arm, I could spot a bit of blue and red.

I could feel my eyes water and my lips curve into a smile on the edges.

I took another step forward.

The man also took a couple steps forward, not taking his eyes from my face.

“…Leya? Are you real?” he asked.

I felt my smile widen and my tears start to come out.

“Yes!” I answered as I quickly nodded.

The man started to smile then, a brilliant smile that reminded me of a cartoon character’s. He then squared up his shoulders and walked forward with more confidence, closing the distance between us. There was no question in my mind: this is Frank.

I ran the remaining steps I had left, keeping my eyes on his smiling face. Once I reached him, I wrapped my arms around his back and felt him embrace me.

This was real. What my arms were holding was real. The strong arms wrapped around my torso were real. This dusty, oily hair I smelled was real.

“Leya!” Frank exclaimed as he lifted me from the ground and spun me around twice.

“Frank! You’re alive!” I excitedly told him as I steadied myself on his shoulders to get a better look at his face.

“Yes, apparently,” he giggled with a wide grin.

His laugh… How much I didn’t realize I missed it until now!

I hugged him once more, exclaiming, “I can’t believe it’s really you!”

“I can’t believe it’s _you,_ either! How are you even here?” He was looking at me in wonderment, as if I was some kind of magical creature.

“Oh, it’s kind of a long story, but all that matters is that I found you, and you’re alive…and…”

Hugging him wasn’t enough. Out of overwhelming glee, I gave him a peck on the cheek, and he smiled. I gave him another peck on his left temple, and then his forehead, just above his right eyebrow, his eyelid, to the tip of his nose, that scar on his cheek, and then his lips and–oh shit.

I jerked my head away and looked down as I clasped my hands together in front of me.

“Sorry,” I said as I felt my face grow exponentially hotter.

Frank only giggled. “What are you sorry for?”

“Sorry–I kissed you on the mouth–”

“And everywhere else on my head,” Frank giggled.

“Ah–no, it’s just I’m really glad to see you, and it’s like, you know, kissing you all over is like how I would kiss a dog of mine I hadn’t seen in a long time–”

“Hahaha, you really missed me, didn’t you, kid?” Frank asked as he reached out and patted my arm.

I felt a large swelling in my heart.

“Of course I did!” I said as I looked up him through my tearful eyes. “Did you…miss me?”

Frank raised an eyebrow. “Do you really need to ask that? Who else can I do this so easily to?” He raised a hand and ruffled up the top of my hair before he hugged me again.

I laughed. “It’s real good to see you again, Frank.”

I leaned my head onto his shoulder as I kept my arms gripped tightly around him. It felt really good to be back in Frank’s embrace. In a way, it felt like coming home.

He gently stroked my hair while he rested his chin on my head. “You have no idea how good it is for me to see you, too. And I think you’re getting a bit taller.”

“Or maybe you’re just getting shorter,” I joked back with a smirk he couldn’t see.

Frank laughed before he rose his head and called out, “Hey! Mikey! What are you doing just standing there?”

He released his hold on me and I turned around to see Mikey simply standing there, looking at us from just inside the main building. His eyes looked a bit happy and sad at the same time. Some of his dark hair was falling over the right side of his face again, but he looked like he’d gotten through the battle fine and without any scratches.

“Well come on, say something…” Frank continued as he took a step forward. I looked over at his eyes, and could see that they were welling up.

Mikey smiled then. “I found you,” he said with a crack in his voice.

Frank quickly walked up to Mikey and the two then shared a strong embrace.

“I see you have the dark hair back,” Frank giggled as he brought a hand to Mikey’s head and gently shook it.

“And you have the short hair back,” Mikey returned with a giddy smile.

They both smiled at each other until Frank looked to the side. He started, “Hey, look, I know I have a lot of explaining to do, and I’m really sorry about just getting up and leaving–”

“You did what you felt you had to,” Mikey cut him off with a shake of his head.

“I’ll always come back for my brothers, you know that. It’s just been taking me a lot longer to get back than I thought it would,” Frank replied.

“It doesn’t matter. All that matters now is that you’re here, and we’re all together again,” Mikey answered with a smile as he affectionately cupped Frank’s face in his right hand.

“Yeah, where’s Ray, anyhow? He is with you guys, right?” Frank asked.

“Right here,” we heard Ray’s voice call out as he clambered up from a broken cement stairwell inside the building to get out here.

Frank gulped, looking over at Ray in what looked like apprehension.

Ray walked up to him with a smile. “I missed you, brother.”

“Missed you more, brother,” Frank returned with a smirk. He and Ray embraced tightly, gripping each others’ shoulders.

Ray bent over and brought Frank’s head closer to his so he could lean his chin on it and ruffle up his short, messy hair. “It’s been too long,” he exhaled.

Frank looked up at Ray with a slightly pained expression. “Listen, Ray. I’m sorry.” He sighed. “I probably should have listened to you, and we never should have fought the way we did–”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ray replied with a smile. “Everything’s water under the bridge. I’m just so glad to see you, man!”

Frank brightened up with an exhale. “Good. I’m… I’m so glad to hear that.” His eyes were still glistening with tears.

Ray reached a hand over to run it through Frank’s hair. “Nice to see you’ve finally cleaned up.”

Frank laughed. “Yeah, and you’ve gone and decided to bring the fro back.”

Ray smiled. “Just like the old days, huh?”

Frank smiled back. “Almost. Dude, this is fucking weird, seeing you all here in the flesh. You all look so good! Mikey, you’re… you look so good man, especially since the last time I saw you, you were barely able to take a walk without getting out of breath. And Leya, look at you—look at all that dirt and grime on you, haha. And elbow pads–you definitely need those, don’t you? And Ray… oh, that glorious long hair is gone but the fro is finally making a comeback. I guess fros have more fun, eh?” Frank giggled.

I smiled at this while trying to keep more tears back. He really seemed to have missed all of us so much.

“I was beginning to think I would never see any of you guys again,” Frank continued as he looked down toward his feet. He looked up again. “But you’re all here now, even Leya. How in the hell did you guys even rope her into this?”

Ray laughed as he gestured over to me with a thumb. “It was really Leya doing all the roping in. She found us, and then we journeyed over here because she wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

The guys all looked back at me, and I smiled in return.

“Why am I not surprised?” Frank remarked with a giggle. “Well, get over here so we can do a group hug, Princess!”

I raised my eyebrows at Frank as I walked over. “You’re lucky I’m too happy to see you that I don’t mind you calling me that,” I joked.

Frank smiled back at me as he swung an arm around my shoulder. I was so glad to see his face again. So were Ray and Mikey, who looked the happiest I’d seen them in four months. We all reached our arms over each other’s shoulders and joined into a group hug. And for that one moment, every single negative thing in the world ceased to exist.


	19. Chapter 19

We all eventually let go of each other. It was strange being here together, all four of us. Probably because it’s been so long since we were all in the same place at the same time.

Ray was patting Frank on the back when he suddenly made an inquisitive expression between his eyebrows. “Dude, what’s that thing on your back?”

Frank’s eyes widened and then he felt at his own back. “Oh. Yeah, um… it’s a katana.”

Mikey looked over at Frank and his eyebrows shot up. “A katana? Like a samurai sword? Let me see…” He went over behind Frank to look at it.

I was also curious and glanced behind Frank. It was the first time I’d noticed he was wearing something on his back–which is kind of stupid, considering I was hugging him for like 3 minutes straight.

“Why don’t I just take it off so we can have show and tell?” Frank asked in a semi-sarcastic tone. But he reached on the strap and pulled it over his head. Indeed, he held in his hand what looked to be a long, padded black sheath with a black and silver samurai sword hilt poking out of the end.

“Be careful with this…” he told Mikey with a serious gaze as he handed him the sword.

“Frank… why do you have this and where did you get it from?” Mikey asked as he slowly pulled the blade out of the sheath. It was shiny and looked real. Well, I mean, I guess it _is_ real.

Frank looked down and put his hands on his hips. “God…well, that’s kind of a long story. Like… book long. Like… I’m not fucking drunk or hydrated enough to start with storytime now.”

He walked forward and took the sword back from Mikey after it was sheathed again.

Hydrated…

My eyes widened. “God, you must be starving and dehydrated! When’s the last time you ate? How long have you been here? Are you feeling okay?”

Frank laughed. “Look at you… taking Mikey’s job and acting like the doctor!” He giggled again and smiled at me. “I’m fine.”

I was looking closely at him, to try and notice if anything appeared wrong. He did look a lot thinner than the last time I saw him. Of course, I was still getting used to his short hair. It really made his face come out much more than it did before. It’s like all the features were more pronounced. He looks more handsome than I remembered.

“Stop staring at me! I’m fine!” he grumpily told me with a light push on my shoulder.

“It couldn’t hurt for you to come down with us to the bikes to have some water and fuel,” I argued as I crossed my arms.

Ray nodded in accord. “Leya’s right. You’ve been on your own for four months. Let us take care of you for a bit now.”

Frank scratched at his jaw as he looked to the side and made a weak whining noise. “I guess a drink of water couldn’t hurt…”

I smiled at this. “Come on! It’s a long way down, so we better get moving now!” I grabbed his arm and started to pull him with me.

He laughed in return, letting me string him along down the corridor. “Alright, Miss Bossy-pants! When did you get so damn authoritative?”

“Oh–Leya!” It was Mikey who called after me. I looked back to see him bend down and pick up my ray gun a few feet away from the threshold to the building. “You dropped this.”

Oh yeah, I had dropped it in the middle of my fight. I had forgotten all about it for the last five minutes.

“Oh, thanks,” I replied with a smile at him as I took my gun.

“Yeah, sure,” Mikey replied. He was looking back at me with a strange, shy smile. Kind of like how he did back when we barely knew each other.

“Nice! Is that yours?” Frank asked. I turned back to him to see him grinning.

“Of course it is!” I answered. “You like? I designed it myself.”

“Hmm, impressive,” Frank remarked as he eyed the gun and we kept walking. He looked back. “Eh, aren’t you guys coming?!”

Ray and Mikey smiled and followed us back through the dusty corridor as we made our way to the exit of the building.

“Hey, how did all of you even know where I was?” I asked the guys as I turned to them. They had all shown up to that landing roughly around the same time. Especially for Frank to be there when he was, it was almost too perfect to be true.

“Well, we just decided to go up to the next floor, but had to take a detour since the ceiling had caved in right on that staircase,” Ray explained. “On our way, we heard laser shots and then Mikey and me split up since we weren’t sure where it came from. And then Mikey got to you first–of course, Frank beat him.”

“Yeah, how did you get there, Frank? Were you in this building the whole time?” I asked.

Frank scratched the back of his head. “No, I wasn’t. But I heard a lot of commotion around here, mostly because of the motorcycles and then I heard a bunch of yelling. Something told me that agents weren’t the only people here if I heard screams. So I walked up here and followed some of the agents to see if any Killjoys were here. That’s when I got to you.”

“We didn’t see you in the building at all,” Ray said as he came up to Frank’s side. “How did you get to her before us?”

“Uh… I took a shortcut. I’ve been in this building a bunch of times. If you go through the nearly broken end, there’s more direct stairwell access to each floor.”

Ray nodded as we went down another concrete staircase at the end of this hallway.

“That’s all fine to know. But Leya, how did _you_ get there? I thought when you and Ray got separated you went up to the next floor,” Mikey addressed me from the back of the group. “That’s why we took so long to find you, since you were nowhere to be found on the 4th floor.”

“Oh, well I did go up to the next floor. Ray saw me,” I answered as I turned partially towards Mikey.

Mikey bent an eyebrow. “So how…”

“The agent pushed me off a landing and I fell down to the next floor,” I nonchalantly replied.

I saw Mikey’s pupils dilate. “You fell?”

“It wasn’t really a big deal, I don’t have any broken bones or anything,” I replied with a laugh. Frank glanced over at me and looked like he wanted to laugh, too.

I heard Mikey groan in frustration.

“Mikey, relax,” Ray told him with a laugh as he swung an arm around his shoulder. “We just found Frank and we’re all unharmed. We should be celebrating!”

“Is there any chance that you guys have cigarettes to celebrate with?” Frank asked with a sly raise of his eyebrows.

“Sorry, but no,” Ray replied with a smile. “Been going through withdrawals?”

Frank made a toothy grin as he breathed out a wheezy laugh. “You have no idea what kind of crazy shit I’ve been going through over the past… well, however long I’ve been here.”

“You mean you don’t know how long you’ve been here?” I asked Frank as we continued walking through the current hallway.

He looked over at me and gave me a tired smile. “What day is it?”

“March 24th,” I answered.

“Then… it’s been a month. Over a month, actually…” he muttered with a look at his shoes. His eyes turned cold.

“Frank,” I started as I put a hand on his shoulder.

He sighed and softly shrugged his shoulders. “We have a lot to talk about. But let’s save it for later. I just want to enjoy this reunion for at least five more minutes.”

I looked between Ray and Mikey, who looked equally as wary as I felt on the inside. We continued walking in silence, with the exception of a few remarks from Frank about the way we looked.

When we got down to the ground level and outside of the building, I took Frank by the arm and pulled him with me toward Ray’s bike.

“Come on, mister. You’re getting hydrated right now!” I said as I marched him over the dusty sidewalk.

“So bossy…” Frank remarked with a giggle.

Mikey and Ray followed at a slower pace while I got busy finding the water bottles that were in Ray’s side car pack.

“Here you go!” I presented an opened water bottle to Frank, who had his arms crossed as he stared over at me. He smiled from one side of his mouth and took the water bottle.

“Thanks, Leya,” he told me. Then he made a short laugh. “Are you sure I’m not hallucinating? I just need to know. For sure.”

I bent my eyebrows. “Frank… you’re not hallucinating. Now drink up!”

“Alright, alright…” he muttered before taking the bottle of water to his lips. He took in several large gulps of water. Even though he tried to act cool about it, he was guzzling down that water–clearly he hadn’t been hydrated for a while. Which might explain him asking about hallucinations…

“Still such a hardass, eh?” Frank told me with a smirk.

I scoffed, “Whatever–the first day I met you, you all were forcing me to drink that poor excuse for water and that canned dog food–be grateful you at least have clean water to drink.”

“Hey–first of all, I _am_ grateful. I really am. And second of all, that wasn’t me–that was all Mikey! He was the one freaking out because you were dehydrated and starved, remember?”

In the small pause, Mikey and I exchanged awkward glances with each other. Of course I remembered that, but Mikey didn’t, so it was the first time he heard of it. Or at least that’s the notion I got from the almost squinty look he gave me.

“Anyway, I’m in much better shape than you were in. You don’t see me fainting and passing out for a few hours,” Frank told me with a smirk.

“Yet,” I remarked. “How have you been surviving here for over a month?”

Frank looked down as he put his hands on his hips. “That’s a good question…”

“So what’s next?” Ray asked with his arms at his sides.

We all looked toward Frank, who looked at nothing in particular on the ground. He put a hand to his chin. “I think we need to go somewhere safer to have this talk. If you guys don’t mind, can we go back to my hideout?”

“Yeah, sure,” I replied. I looked around as well. I didn’t see or hear anybody else.

“Good. Then, I’ll lead the way,” Frank said as he walked up to Mikey’s bike.

Ray tapped my shoulder. “Hey, you should probably ride with me, since you’re the smallest one.”

“Yeah, right,” I answered as I tore my eyes away from Frank to look at Ray.

“…you sure you want to drive?” I heard Mikey ask.

“Yeah, man! You know how long it’s been since I drove anything?” Frank replied as he put a hand on one of the handle bars.

“Alright… You sure you don’t want a helmet first, though?” Mikey asked as Frank sat down on the bike right away.

“Nah, Mikey,” Frank muttered.

“Alright, but take these first,” Mikey replied. He reached into the collar of his shirt and gave Frank his aviator sunglasses.

Frank looked at the glasses with a tender look. “My glasses? You kept them all this time?!” He looked back up at Mikey with a bright smile.

Mikey shrugged with a gentle smile of his own. “‘Course I did. I was only borrowing them. I always planned on returning them to you.”

Now it all made sense why Mikey seemed to give so much attention to those sunglasses. They were Frank’s. So all those times he lingered over them, the fact that he wore them all the time even though he didn’t have to…

Frank reached a hand over the glasses and then looked up at Mikey. “Mikey… thank you.”

“It was nothing,” Mikey said as he ran a hand through his hair.

Frank breathed out a laugh as he put the sunglasses on to shade his eyes. “Oh shut up, you geek. It’s not nothing!”

Mikey’s eyes widened at this but he smiled. He seemed a lot calmer than he was just fifteen minutes ago with me. A lot more like his usual self.

“We should get going, then. Leya, hop on!” Ray cheerily told me as he got the Harley’s engine revved. I walked over and got onto the bike as Mikey settled behind Frank on his own sports bike.

“Watch those brakes–” Mikey started.

“I got it!” Frank argued as he started up the bike. “Just follow me, Ray.”

Frank led us nearly two miles out of the skyscraper ruins to a small neighborhood of short buildings. He stopped outside this brick building on a corner. The large glass windows were broken, and it was a bit dark inside.

“Come inside here. Bring the bikes, too,” Frank said after he turned off the sport bike’s engine.

We followed Frank’s lead and brought the bikes in through the creaky, wooden double doors. Inside, we could see tables and booths of red leather, a bunch of posters and pictures framed on the walls, and even a bunch of old tv’s hanging from the ceiling. It was clearly a restaurant.

“This is where you’ve been staying?” Ray asked as he took off his bike helmet and started to unmatt his hair.

Frank turned to him as he pushed the aviator sunglasses to the top of his head. “Yeah. I found this…maybe a week ago? Most of the agents don’t go out this far, and they all seem to have some nightfall curfew anyway, so this has been a safe spot.”

He walked ahead towards one round booth in the corner and slung the sword over onto the seat, where his green vest laid, looking a lot more faded and worn out than I remember. He turned back to us. “Feel free to sit down, settle in, whatever. We got all day and the rest of the time in the world to talk.”

I went and sat down on the nearest booth seat to my left while Ray and Mikey started to unload some of the supplies. Frank casually paced the floor in front of us. We all eventually sat down together at one shady booth, drinking water, and in Frank’s case, he was eating some of the food rations we brought.

“So, when do we get to talk?” Ray asked as he looked across the table at Frank with folded hands. He had a bright look in his eyes.

Frank was licking his fingers when he looked back at Ray. “Toro, give me one more minute…”

“Oh–okay,” Ray replied as he looked back down. It was an awkward silence that took place as Frank continued to eat and Mikey, Ray, and I kept glancing between each other.

“Frank…” I started, just as the silence began to become unbearable for me. I was sitting next to Frank, so his chewing was especially loud.

He lazily looked back at me. “What?”

“Can you put yourself in our shoes for a minute?” Ray asked with a soft voice. “For four months, you were gone. Lost. Possibly dead. I guess I just wanna ask… well, where were you, man?”

Frank wiped his hands on his pants before he looked back up at Ray. “I went looking for Gerard.”

“We know,” Ray quickly answered. “But.. where were you? D told us that he found your bike trashed along Route Guano near Battery City.”

“Did he also tell you I was dead?” Frank asked with a provocatively raised eyebrow. “I told him…two weeks. If I don’t come back in two weeks, take care of you guys. Of course, I never thought I would be gone for that long. Let alone four months. It’s been four months, right?”

“He didn’t tell us anything like that. It was only when we caught up to him like a week ago that he told us about finding the trashed bike. He had no idea where you were this whole time. He had no real hope of finding you. Not until Leya persuaded him otherwise.”

Frank turned to me briefly, but just to glance at me.

“So…what happened?” Ray asked.

Frank breathed out a small laugh. Then he looked around at us. “A lot.”

“You mind letting us in on the story, then?” Ray asked, looking slightly annoyed now.

Frank heaved a sigh. “I told you. It’s a really fucking long story.”

“Then just answer at least one thing,” Mikey said before he cleared his throat. “Ahem, I don’t want to be rude, but why in the hell do you have a samurai sword?”

Frank scoffed and narrowed his eyes. “So I can kill Bill, Mikey…”

“Frank, be serious,” Ray told him in a stern voice.

Frank sighed. “The lady, the Director of Better Living Industries–that evil bitch? She fights with a katana. So I needed to be able to fight with a katana so that I could beat her and find out what she did to Gerard.”

“The Director?” Ray questioned with a creased forhead.

Frank’s jaw slightly dropped. “Don’t you remember anything about what I told you about that night at SCARECROW? She’s the one behind all of this–behind what happened to Gerard and what happened to Mikey and–” Frank had stopped speaking. He was looking over at Mikey with guilty eyes.

“Okay,” I said as I loudly put my palms onto the table. “I think we all just need to slow down with the questioning.”

“Thank you,” Frank told me with a nod.

“And you need to explain yourself in full,” I told him, at which he scowled. “You said it’s a long story, and what you said is true, we have all the time in the world to hear it. So you might as well start now.”

Frank stared at me in contemplation.

“We’re all ears,” Mikey addded as he folded his hands on the table.

Frank gazed at Ray and Mikey, and then his face hardened. I previously thought that his short hair made him look a bit younger, but as I looked at his serious face, he looked maybe five years older than the Frank I was used to.

“Fine. But I’m warning you, don’t interrupt. Because what I have to tell you all will only make sense if you know the whole story. So, here it goes…”

We listened to Frank for at least ten minutes. He told us about how he had first gone into Battery City, then got chased out and broke his leg, then how he had to wait two months before it healed, so he could then train with that elderly woman Masaki to learn to use a samurai sword. He told us about BLI’s Director and her past, how he got back into Battery City and impersonated an agent, met the secretary at BL/ind and used her help to get the Director alone, and then how he had confronted her but failed to find out where Gerard was. Mikey and Ray interrupted a few times out of impulse, but Frank kept going with his story and ignored their questions.

“I escaped with Rina, because they were going to kill her for helping me. Although, the Director hushed up the explosion as an accident, because she’s trying really hard to not let anyone know that anything is wrong or that I’m alive. It would cause panic, Rina said… Anyway, Rina and I got talking, and she told me about all these psychological memory experiments the Director was doing on people around the time we busted Grace out of Battery City. She said that a lot of these experiments were going wrong and that test subjects were experiencing side effects like memory loss, loss of motor functions, and… it sounds like what happened to you, Mikey. You know, with the amnesia and all.”

Mikey was quiet for a few seconds before he responded, “So you think I was a test subject in the Director’s experiment?”

“That night at SCARECROW… the Director made it clear that she had a purpose for not killing you. And considering she doesn’t like to leave her enemies alive that often, you must have been pretty damn special to her. Anyway, when I met up with her at BL/ind she told me that I 'stole’ you away from the hospital. That you weren’t finished yet–”

Mikey had placed a hand up to his scar. “What does that mean–finished?”

Frank raised up his tattooed hands. “Look–all I know is that she didn’t want you dead. She wanted you alive and was planning on doing something with your memory. She said she had plans for Gerard, too. She mentioned how she 'put him under’ which clearly means that **he wasn’t fucking dead**. Which is why it only made sense that Gerard had to be at the research facility, as one of the memory test subjects.”

Mikey looked over at Frank with a hard gaze. “Before you go any further… I need you to tell me.”

Frank looked back at Mikey with apprehension.

Mikey swallowed. “I know I told you that I didn’t want you to tell me. That I wanted to remember by myself. But all I’ve been remembering about that night stays in the nightmares that have been terrorizing me for the bulk of these past four months. So tell me. What happened to me that night, Frank?”

Frank looked back at Mikey with glistening eyes. He looked down, “First of all, I just want to say I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Mikey…”

Ray and I were both looking at Frank in concern while Mikey kept his intense gaze on him.

Frank swallowed and breathed in deep before he spoke, all the while keeping a gaze on Mikey. “After we all got shot down, it was probably only a couple minutes until I heard you come to, and that’s when the Director noticed you were alive. She said something like… she was impressed with you. And that you and Gerard were going to become assets to her. After that, she ordered some agents to take you away to be 'repaired.’ But Korse… that bastard was pissed off that you shot him in the leg. He taunted you, saying something like he was going to destroy you, but you bit back, like the fighter you are, but then he got on top of you, and he tried to smother you–so I had no choice but to stop him. I made a promise to Gerard a long time ago–if anything happened to him, I’d take care of you, and I’d make sure nothing bad happened to you. So I shot Korse in the back. But he didn’t die.”

There was a brief pause and then Frank casually added, “Oh, by the way, Korse is a fucking robot.”

“What?” Ray softly exclaimed.

“A robot?” I echoed as I thought about this.

“Yeah, a robot–or android, was what you called him Mikey. Seriously. When I shot him, he didn’t even bleed. He had circuits and wires inside his skin that started sparking. So, I mean, that’s why when Leya pushed him into that electric fence at Sweetwater, he didn’t die! Even though Leya did…”

“I fucking knew it…” Mikey said in a low voice. “You owe me a fucking soda the next time we come across one, Ray!” Mikey had pointed and glared at Ray. I remember the tail end of that conversation at the mobile home. How Ray had laughed off Mikey’s suggestion that Korse wasn’t exactly human…

Ray stayed speechless and just raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“And now it makes sense about the electric conversion you told me about,” Mikey continued, addressing Ray. “When Leya pushed him into the fence, the metal he was made of–or at least wires that ran through his body–that must have conducted the current, which traveled to Leya–and that’s why they both got shocked but only she died!”

“Try and be a little bit more excited while talking about my temporary death,” I sarcastically muttered with bent eyebrows. “Still, this is just too weird. I mean, I got killed…trying to kill a robot?”

“Look, I’m not sure exactly what he is, but that asshole isn’t human. Which explains the lack of compassion and the creepy way he talks,” Frank continued.

_And his creepy black eyes…_ I added internally.

After a brief moment of letting that sink in, Mikey returned his serious gaze to Frank. “Well, get back to the story. What happened after you shot Korse?”

Frank cleared his throat. “I… I got shot. Badly this time. And you–you yelled out for me, because I didn’t get up. But they were going to take you, and I thought that if I just waited, I could get up and take you out of there. If I could play dead for a few minutes, and get everybody off guard. But it all happened too fast. They took you away and then they took me and Ray to the furnace room. And you…” Frank had stopped talking.

“What?” Mikey asked, keeping his eyes solely focused on Frank.

“Look… I didn’t know at the time,” Frank started with reddening eyes. “I just thought that when they said 'repair’ you, they meant that they would stitch up your laser wound. I had no idea that they would go inside your brain and–”

“and what?” Mikey asked, breathing faster.

“I don’t know,” Frank answered with a pained look in his round eyebrows.

Mikey’s face twisted as he swallowed. “Don’t give me that, Frank! Just tell me–what did they do to me?”

“I don’t know! Honestly!” Frank replied with tears in his eyes. “But not a day has gone by where I don’t wish that I had stopped them from taking you. From breaking you down. Seeing you in that hospital… seeing how weak you got… it tore me up. And I feel responsible for the whole thing.”

It was quiet between all of us for a few seconds. Frank was starting to sweat now as he looked down. “I didn’t know that I would be gone for four months. I wouldn’t have abandoned you both like that. Finding Gerard just ended up being a lot harder than I thought it would be. And I’m sorry. Mikey, Ray… I’m really sorry.” Frank’s face was pale and contorted with pain.

Ray looked back at him with lowered eyes. “It-it’s okay…”

“Yeah, Frank. It’s okay,” Mikey added with watering eyes. “Thanks for telling me the truth.”

I was tearing up from all the raw emotion. We all were quiet for a few minutes then. But eventually Frank got back to his story.

“…so Rina helped me get into the research facility. I thought that Gerard would be there. It was the only lead I had, anyway. But before I could make sure that any of the memory test subjects were him, I got ambushed and knocked out by some agent in all black. I have no idea what happened to Rina. They probably killed her. If she’s lucky, BL/ind just arrested her. Anyway, the next thing I know, I’m being driven over here at the ass-crack of dawn by the same agent and he drops me off in the middle of this skyscraper graveyard. He leaves me my gun and my sword and just drives off. Then I discover his other black-clad friends and fight them. The same thing happens almost everyday since. I try to find my way back to Battery City, but no matter where I go, it’s either desert or a dead end. For some reason, I don’t die. And then one day a miracle happens. Three of my former best friends show up with bikes and food and water.”

Frank was smiling now, although it looked pitiful since he still had moist eyes from crying a few minutes earlier.

“So that’s my story,” Frank remarked after another few seconds of silence. “Now it’s time for you guys to tell me a story. What have _you_ been doing for the last four months?”

He looked between the three of us, but it was Ray who spoke first. “A few weeks after you left, D told us about this place he had propped up in Zone 5. Mikey and I have been living there the past few months. We just tried to lay low, since we were dead to the world.”

Frank nodded, “Yeah. BL/ind will be glad you did that. Apparently they don’t want anyone to know that we’re alive.”

I creased my eyebrows. “Why is that? A week ago, Show Pony told us the same thing. He got attacked and taken hostage so that agents could track down Dr. D, because they apparently knew where the Fabulous Killjoys were. And they don’t want anyone else to know that you all are alive.”

Frank blinked. “Yeah, I think with us out of the picture, there’s a little less anarchy in the world–at least to the knowledge of Battery City.”

He turned back to Ray and Mikey. “So that’s literally all that happened with you two in four months? Y'all just decided to get new haircuts?”

I lightly laughed at this. Ray and Mikey looked at each other and then back at Frank.

“We couldn’t just go out rounding up Dracs anymore,” Ray answered. “Not when we were safer being dead to them. Besides, Mikey… Mikey needed peace so he could regain his memories.”

Mikey gave Ray a grieved look as his mouth tightened.

Frank quickly raised an eyebrow with what looked like contempt. “I see… Well, how is the memory thing going by the way, Mikey?”

“Not good,” Mikey curtly replied. “After a while, I got frustrated so I just had Ray fill in a lot of what I was missing. Some things I’ve remembered on my own, but it’s all in bits and pieces.”

Frank solemnly nodded. Then he turned to me. “How about you? How were the last four months for you?”

I forced a smile out of the right corner of my mouth. “Um, well… I was at Sweetwater.”

“That’s it?” Frank asked with raised eyebrows.

I exhaled a bit before answering, “Yeah. Until two weeks ago. I went searching for Dr. D because… because I wanted to find out what happened to you guys. The truth, that is. Not what was in the newspaper.”

Frank narrowed his eyes as he looked between me, Ray, and Mikey. “Why do I get the feeling that there’s something I’m missing here?”

“You were all dead,” I softly replied as I looked down at the table. “Dr. D hadn’t been on the airwaves since then. It was all too weird. So I went looking for him to get some answers on what really happened, since he was the last one to see you guys alive.”

“Wait a minute–so you thought we were all dead this whole time?” Frank asked. “Then how did you all meet up?”

“She found me on accident,” Mikey said as he looked across the table. “And then I took her back to mine and Ray’s place, and that’s when we all agreed on setting out to look for you.”

“And then we found Dr. D and he found a lead, so here we are!” I cheerily concluded.

Frank held a long stare at Mikey and then me. He sighed. “Well, it seems like we’re all caught up then. Anyone want a beer?”

Ray laughed. “So that’s how you’ve been surviving out here!”

“Yeah, well luckily there’s beer here in the bar’s store. Want to come check it out?” Frank asked with a wink. “How about let’s all go? Oh, but you’re not old enough to drink, are you, Leya?” He smirked at me with this last bit.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “If I’m old enough to kill Dracs, then I’m old enough to drink!”

Frank giggled. “Alright, take it easy, warrior princess…”

Mikey softly laughed at this. Despite all the heaviness of the last half hour, he looked… happy. It was weird. Although, now that I think about it, back then… he was always an optimistic guy. He’s been almost nothing but negative for the last two weeks, so I guess it was a bit jarring to see him not frowning. Finding Frank really did help…

“Come on, Kobra Kid,” I said as I turned to follow the others.

Mikey smiled and followed after me, until we caught up with Frank and Ray. They were kneeling down into the cupboards behind a small bar. Everything in this restaurant was covered with thick layers of dust and cobwebs. They pushed it all aside to get out a couple six-pack cases of beer from the cupboards while Mikey and I were busy wiping all the dust off the counter.

“I propose we have a little bit of fun now, what do you guys say?” Frank asked with a smile as he handed each of us a bottle of beer.

“Here, here!” Ray called out with his bottle raised in the air.

“How about you two?” Frank turned to me and Mikey.

“You know I’m always in for fun,” I said as I rose up an eyebrow to Frank.

“Me, too!” Mikey said with a teeth-revealing smile.

“Then cheers, boys and girl!” Frank said as he clanked his beer bottle against Ray’s. Mikey and I also reached over to clank our bottles against theirs.

  
  


For the next couple of hours, we avoided all serious talk. Frank, Ray, and Mikey had arm wrestling and push-up competitions, which baffled me because–why? They were just wearing themselves out for no reason. Although they were too giddy or drunk to care. We also found a dusty old dart board and competed in that arena. Mikey and I tied, so we settled the score with a thumb war. Mikey won, unfortunately. And then we had a rematch. And then somehow we got around to taking turns telling each other riddles. It was actually fun. Which was something refreshing for us all.

Unfortunately, when the sun went down, the fun stopped, too.

“As great as this reunion has been so far,” Ray started as he drummed his hands, “What are we going to do next?”

Frank’s good-humored look fell. We were all sitting around the bar on old dusty stools that still managed to carry our weights.

“Look, I just think that we should know what we’re doing. So that we don’t make the same mistakes we did before. I don’t want to get separated ever again from any of you…” Ray said with a deep look at all of us. I think he was still slightly buzzed.

Frank nodded, and his frown faded. “Those are true words, man. Truer words have never been spoken.” I think this idiot was still drunk, too. Of course, he’s been kind of out of it all day…

I took in a deep breath and smiled. “We don’t have to be so serious about this. I mean, we’re all together now. There’s no reason for anyone to be a negative nancy.”

“I would agree… but I do have a reason to be a negative nancy. I have promises that I need to keep. And I still have yet to find Gerard. And no matter what happens, I am going to march back into Battery City and I am going to kill the Director, even if it kills me,” Frank solemnly said with a hard stare.

“You don’t have to do it alone,” Mikey added as he crossed his arms. “We’ll be there with you.”

“Yeah… I mean, I’m not too excited about it because we have a good chance of getting killed for real this time, but what else is there to do?” Ray asked with a shrug.

Frank laughed. “I never thought I’d hear you say something like that.”

“I know how to get back to Battery City from here,” I told Frank with a bright look.

He looked at me with a deeply creased eyebrow. “What? How? I’ve been looking for a way out for weeks now and I’ve come close to nothing.”

“How do you think those agents-in-training keep coming here?” I asked Frank.

He blinked in confusion. “Agents in training?”

“Yeah, the black uniform guys that are on steroids,” I muttered. “There’s an entrance to the Western gate of the city through a tunnel that goes through the building you found me in.”

I saw splotches of red appear on Frank’s cheeks. “How would you even know about this? I’ve been in that building a few times–I never saw a fucking tunnel!”

“Because that’s how I got out of Battery City a year ago,” I argued while slightly raising my voice. “You can believe me or not, but if you want to get back to Battery City, that’s the quickest way into it from here.”

Frank looked down. “You know, you’re a real killjoy… and I don’t mean the kind with ray guns and shitty taste in fashion.”

“And you’re drunk,” I replied with a roll of my eyes.

“Well, duh,” Frank muttered as he leaned back in his seat.

“Alright, so we agreed that we’re going into Battery City tomorrow?” Mikey asked.

“No!” Frank exclaimed. I looked at him with narrowed eyes. “I mean… whatever.”

“Maybe we’ll talk about it when you’re sober,” Ray told Frank with a pat on his arm.

“I’m the most sober I’ve been ever since I’ve been here!” Frank shouted. And then he let out a loud belch from the side of his mouth.

“Clearly…” I muttered out with a laugh. Ray and Mikey also laughed, and then a few seconds later, Frank started laughing.

Frank put his head down on the counter. “…Ray’s right. Let’s just talk about this later. I’m sure that tomorrow I’ll be in a better frame of mind to talk about this. Right now, I just want to… sleep.” He promptly closed his eyes and looked like he really was nodding off.

I looked apprehensively to Mikey and Ray.

“I think we should just let him be,” Ray whispered out to me. “Let’s move over there,” he said as he beckoned with his hand toward a booth across the room.

I nodded as I slid off my stool and followed Ray and Mikey to sit down at a booth that was lit by the last weakening rays of the setting sun.

As Ray sat down, he looked back at Frank, which led to me and Mikey looking back at him. He was breathing deeply now with his face resting slightly against his right arm.

“We actually did it,” Ray stated without turning back to us. “We found him.”

“What was I telling you guys the whole time?” I asked with a smile. I couldn’t help but feel a bit smug that my instincts were right, even though everyone doubted me.

Ray finally turned to me with a guilty look. “I need to apologize. I’ve been such a downer about finding Frank this whole time. So… sorry, Leya. For not believing in you.”

“It’s fine, Ray,” I told him.

Mikey was quietly looking down at the table. I glanced over at him and he caught my look. “I’m sorry, too. For yelling at you earlier. And for all the times that my faith wavered.”

“Your faith never truly waivered, though, right?” I asked Mikey. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have kept those sunglasses for so long.”

Mikey nodded and lightened up the look in his eyes. “Yeah, I guess… Thanks for dragging us here, though.”

“Eh, it was nothing,” I said as I looked down humbly. “Honestly, nothing else matters now that we found Frank and that we’re all together. I don’t even care anymore that you don’t remember me on your own,” I said with a smile.

Mikey raised his eyebrows. “Really?”

“Well, yeah,” I replied with a shrug. “We were able to become friends again. So what does it matter if you can’t remember the past–we’ll just make new memories!”

Mikey smiled over at me, and so did Ray.

“Guys… I wish we could stay like this forever. It’s nice. I haven’t felt this happy in such a long time…” Ray said as he teared up.

“Oh, Ray, don’t cry!” I softly told him as I leaned my arm over to grab his hand.

“I’m sorry. I’m just so happy!” Ray said as he tried to wipe away his tears.

I smiled at this. Mikey started laughing. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you drunk, Ray.”

“Don’t laugh at him!” I lightly scolded Mikey.

“I’m not!” he said with a bright smile. “Ray’s such a nice drunk, though, it’s funny.”

“I’m not drunk,” Ray denied with a pout. “I only had three bottles…”

I started yawning, and put a hand up over my mouth.

“You drunk, too?” Mikey asked with a sparkle in his eye.

“No, just tired,” I told him with a narrowed eye.

“Right,” he said with a raise of his eyebrow. “You’ve been doing nothing but training all week and today’s been pretty eventful. It was bound to catch up with you.”

“Whatever,” I muttered as I crossed my arms.

“Hey, how come _**you’re**_ not drunk?” Ray asked Mikey.

“Because _I_ only had one beer…” Mikey replied with a smirk.

“Yeah, well… I’m gonna go find another booth to take a nap in,” I told the guys as I stood up. “Later.”

I walked over to Ray’s bike to pull out my hoodie from the sidecar and then I pulled off my boots and laid down on one of the round booths in the corner. I closed my eyes and then sleep came easily.


	20. Chapter 20

A few hours later, I woke up and it was dark in the restaurant, nearly pitch black. I saw a small glow coming from one of the tables, so I stood up to get a closer look. As I walked across the wooden floor, I heard Ray snoring, so he must have been asleep. I approached the glow on the table to find that it was a candle and Frank was sitting in front of it.

“Hey,” I quietly greeted as I sat down across from him.

“Hey, Leya,” Frank whispered back. He put a hand up and beckoned me forward. “You should sit next to me so that we don’t wake them up.”

“Right…” I whispered as I got up again and sat next to Frank this time on his side of the table.

He looked over at me, his face half-illuminated in the candlelight.

“Hey, I’m sorry about the way I was talking to you earlier. Alcohol plus an embarrassed me don’t really mix well,” he said with a soft laugh.

“It’s alright. I know you were a bit out of it,” I told him.

He smiled, then gestured to the candle as he lit another one next to it. “Gotta love old-fashioned Italian restaurants, huh? The power’s out in this place, but at least they have a shitload of candles here.”

I nodded with a soft laugh.

Frank looked at me for a few seconds. “It’s really good to see you, Leya. I know I told you this up there, but… you look great. Different. But in a good way. Stronger. Confident. Older. Heh, you actually almost look your age now.”

“Wow, Frank… I thought you hated being sentimental,” I remarked with a laugh.

“When did I ever say that?” he asked as he looked to the side. Then the light in his eyes slightly dropped and he looked at me carefully. “How have you been? For someone who likes to talk as much as you do, you said very little about the last four months of your life. Are you okay?”

I smiled at the corner of my mouth. “Of course–you’re here now. Everything’s okay.”

Frank deepened his look. “Leya…” I let my smile drop. “I never would have asked you to come out here looking for me because I know how dangerous it is. I thought it would be better for you to stay at Sweetwater, where you were finally safe and happy. You were happy there, right?”

“How could I be happy living in a world without you in it?” I had said the words before I even knew they were coming out of my mouth. I felt embarrassed now. To say something so serious like that.

I looked away.

Frank was silent for a few seconds. Then he spoke, his eyes filled with pain. “I’m sorry. I can’t imagine how horrible that must have been for you to hear that we were dead. Especially after what had just happened with your other friends. Especially after we told you we would come back to see you soon.”

I blinked. No one else has addressed the way this whole situation has affected me, except for the people at Sweetwater who gave me these pitiful stares as I walked past. But none of them really understood how I felt.

“It was hard, I’m not going to lie,” I said with a big exhale. “But because I didn’t want to accept it, I started this journey and it brought me back to you and the other guys. So I’m okay now. I really am.”

Frank looked over at me with a wistful expression.

“What?” I asked, feeling bashful as he said nothing.

He made a short laugh. “Nothing, it’s just… you really have grown up. You even got your own ray gun now, haha. My little princess Leya’s all grown up into a little independent woman!” He had leaned over and hugged me to him while ruffling up my hair extra messy.

“Oh, shush!” I replied, feeling embarrassed as I pushed myself off from him. “And stop with the ‘little’–you’re only a few inches taller than me!”

Frank smirked. “You’re still shorter than me, so that gives me license to call you 'little,’ so ha!”

After quietly chuckling, I turned back to him. “In all seriousness, I really have you guys to thank for all the growing I did. If you never trusted me or gave me a chance to prove myself in battle, I never would have believed in myself. I never would have found the courage to make it on my own. So thank you.”

Frank smiled. “You still don’t see yourself, do you?”

I blinked up in question. “What do you mean?”

“I mean it wasn’t just us,” was all Frank said with a smile. “That fire you have, it was always in you. And I could see it, since day one. It’s that spark in you, that lightning, that keeps you moving, that makes you so damn stubborn.” He laughed.

I smiled at hearing these words. He always knew what to say to make me feel better.

Frank had been looking down for a few seconds as his smile faded. “Thank you for finding me, Leya. Really.”

I looked at Frank carefully, as he seemed to be shaking a bit.

“Hey, you’re always open with me, so I’m gonna be open with you,” he continued. “I know I’m not really good at that, but I feel like if anyone here is going to listen and understand and not judge me, it’ll be you. I know I’ve been there for you before, and I guess… well, if it’s alright, I’m asking for you to be there for me for a few minutes.”

“Of course,” I replied as I put my hand over his on the table. His skin was cold, and I had never seen him look so vulnerable or nervous.

Frank swallowed and then began, “Truth is… I’ve been so miserable out here. A few days ago, I thought I was done. I was convinced that no one was going to find me and I was going to die here. And I deserved to die here. I acted like an asshole before I left. There was no way that Ray was going to look for me. Probably not Mikey either. I figured they thought I was dead anyway.” He paused. “I guess I should have figured that it was you who had the idea to come find me. And you were the one that brought the guys. There’s no other way they would have gone to look for me…”

“Frank, no…” I replied to him. “The reason I found Mikey and Ray in the first place was because Mikey was at this bar, trying to find information on Dr. D. So that he could use his help to find you!”

“Just Mikey?”

I looked down. I couldn’t lie to him.

Frank sardonically laughed. “What did it take for Ray to even come after me? You must have bribed him something good…”

I frowned. “Frank, it’s not like that. He really wanted to come here on his own. And he loves you, you know that.”

“Then why did he have to wait until you showed up to start looking for me?” Frank asked as he looked away.

“He probably thought you were dead… and he was taking care of Mikey, trying to keep on with their lives while you were gone…”

Frank shook his head as he stared straight ahead. “Of course he was trying to go on with life. That’s what he does best. Me, on the other hand…” He dipped his head and rubbed his eyes.

“Frank, you heard Ray. Everything’s water under the bridge. Whatever happened between you guys, it’s not important anymore,” I told him.

“It never _was_ important,” he replied with a dark laugh. “It was just me being an asshole. I was upset about Gerard and feeling guilty about what happened to Mikey, so I lashed out at him. We had arguments, but I was sure that they’d be forgotten once I brought Gerard back. I thought it was only going to be a matter of days before it all blew over.”

Frank looked over at me. “Tell me something, Leya. Do you still feel guilty about your sister, or your friends that died for you?”

I was surprised to hear him ask that. But now that I thought about it…

“No,” I answered. “I don’t. It wasn’t my fault.”

Frank smiled, but I could see tears come into his eyes. “See, I’ve been trying to tell myself that. That what happened to Gerard, what happened to Mikey, and what happened to Rina–they were all out of my control. But were they? Were they really?” His eyes were shiny with tears now. “If I had just been paying more attention in the fight, maybe I could have saved Gerard. And if I didn’t just lie on the floor playing dead, I could have taken Mikey with me, and he never would have been experimented on and had his memory fucked with. But definitely, definitely, I know for sure, if I had never asked Rina for help, if I had found another way to get the Director alone… Rina would still be living her normal life. But she helped me, and her life got destroyed because of it.

"I’m no hero, Leya. I know I like to act tough, I talk big, but I can’t back up any of it. You know what happened when I first got into Battery City? I didn’t even last five minutes. Within five minutes, I got chased by agents and then I broke my leg. And the only reason I got out of that jam was because I had an old woman rescue me and nurse me back to health. That was Masaki–she taught me how to fight with a katana, but she didn’t want me to go back. She told me that I wasn’t ready, that she didn’t want to send me to get killed by the Director. I didn’t listen. I told her that I was going to do everything in my power to kill the bitch, and when the opportunity actually came, guess what I did? I hesitated. I got my ass beat. It was so fucking pathetic. I got one scratch on her, but I couldn’t even find out where Gerard was. And then Rina… I promised I would keep her safe. And then she helped me again and I got sacked right away, leaving her at the mercy of whoever got me.

"Four months. Four months I just failed and failed over and over again. All these people I let down… And for what? I didn’t get Gerard back. I didn’t defeat the Director. I accomplished nothing. I did nothing but get my dumb ass into even more trouble. So yeah, I felt like I deserved it. To die out here. What good am I to anyone–all I do is cause more trouble for myself and anyone involved with me–and I don’t even have anything to show for it!”

“Yes you do!” I replied, my voice heavy with the lump in my throat that had formed at hearing Frank’s monologue. “Frank, I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for you. That scar on your face is proof that you sacrificed yourself to save me. And maybe it’s not much to you, my life, that is… But it means everything to me. And think about all the other people you’ve saved–Grace! You can’t tell me it wasn’t worth it to save her life, even though all this other stuff happened.”

Frank let more tears slide down his face silently.

“All your failures, all the pain you’ve had to go through these past four months, it’s not your fault, Frank,” I told him as I placed a hand on his shoulder. “You meant to keep your promises, and bad things just happened. Things that were out of your control. It’s not your fault! So let it go. Let all the pain go.”

“I can’t,” Frank whispered through a sobbing throat and a runny nose.

“Try,” I told him as I sidled closer and gently moved my hand across his back to coax him. “You’ve been really brave to open up to me, and I’m really glad that you did. But as you asked, I’ll be here for you. So cry on me, yell at me, let it out any way you need to. I’ll take it on for you, shoulder your weight a bit.”

Frank swallowed. “Why would you want to do that?”

“Because… you’re one of my best friends,” I answered. “You’re like family to me, Frank. And that’s why I can’t stand to see you in pain like this.”

Frank smiled at me, although it looked twisted because he was still crying. Then he reached a hand across my shoulder and began to hug me as he shook with tears. I wrapped my arms around him, too, and held him as he shook in my hold. He was clinging so hard to me that he was snagging my shirt a bit, but I didn’t mind. I just stayed quiet and held Frank’s head to my shoulder.

We sat like this until Frank got sleepy again, and he was literally nodding off against my shoulder. So I coaxed him to lie on his back across my lap and held his head in my hands, gently petting the unruly strands of his hair until he fell asleep. I fell asleep like this, half-lying/half-sitting on the booth seat with my right hand under his head.

When I woke up, the gray morning light slightly illuminated the restaurant. The candles had long since been snuffed out, and Frank was still asleep on his side, with his head still resting on my right hand. My legs felt numb and my back felt creaky. I laughed internally. It was kind of like that one night we fell asleep on each other four months ago at the checkpoint store. But this time, no one disturbed our sleep, so I decided to sit here in the silence, with only Frank’s soft breathing making any noise.

Ray and Mikey had woken up not long after. They had each occupied one separate long booth for the night. Frank woke up shortly after hearing one of them accidentally knock over a salt shaker on a table. A few minutes after this, we all rounded up and had breakfast–sort of–to then talk about our next moves.

“So…I know I was kind of inebriated while we had this conversation yesterday, but I meant what I said,” Frank started as he finished drinking out of a water canteen. “I’m going to find the Director again and I’m going to kill her. She’s taken Gerard from us, she’s almost destroyed us, she’s ruined Masaki and Rina’s lives, and not to mention everyone else’s lives in Battery City.”

Mikey, Ray and I were silent for a bit.

I spoke up first. “So, you said that she’s the one who is in charge of Better Living Industries, right? So she was in charge of Korse, too?”

“She’s pretty much responsible for everything BL/ind has been doing this whole past decade,” Frank bitterly replied.

“So that means she’s responsible for the pills I had to take, she’s responsible for the Cleanout, she’s responsible for killing my friends, for killing those people at Sweetwater, for technically killing me, for ordering the torture and capture of Show Pony, then the torture and capture of everyone at the Black Widow. Not to mention everything you just said,” I counted off to myself. I scoffed as I looked back to Frank. “Well then, count me in. I want that bitch dead, too.”

“Hold on, you two,” Ray cut in. He was done being overly sentimental now that he was sober. “You think you’re just going to go in there and kill the Director of Better Living Industries?”

Frank and I looked between each other. “Well… yeah,” we said in unison.

Ray sighed. Mikey breathed out a laugh.

“Wow, it really is going to be interesting having you two make any plans together,” Mikey remarked as he smoothed out his messy bed-head hair.

I bent an eyebrow. “Well, obviously there’s going to be guards and the trouble of getting her alone. But Frank’s done it before.”

“And he almost got killed!” Ray exclaimed.

“But this time he won’t be alone,” I argued. “If the four of us work together, we have a much better shot at this.”

“Ray, we only have two big missions here: get Gerard and kill the Director,” Frank explained as he counted on his right index and middle fingers. “Now, killing the Director is the easier of the two as far as I’m concerned. Since a) she’s never going to tell us where Gerard is and b) we actually know where she is, while Gerard’s location remains a mystery. Quite frankly, I have too many goddamn reasons to kill the bitch. So if we can’t find Gerard, I’m sure as hell going to at least avenge him by killing the Director–and Korse, while I’m at it.”

“I thought Gerard was always the priority,” Ray replied with a downward look.

Frank sighed as he looked between us all. “Of course he is. But… what if we can’t ever find him?”

Ray shot his eyes up to Frank. “You’re going to start talking like a downer _now_?”

Frank shrugged. “Well, hey… I was in Battery City for three weeks and I got barely closer to finding him than I was the night we got Mikey out of the hospital. What if… what if he’s…”

“What does your heart tell you?” It was Mikey who had asked this.

Frank looked over at him and scoffed. “My heart isn’t exactly a reliable navigator…”

I took in a deep breath. “Well, I for one believe that Gerard is still alive. And my heart’s been pretty right on the target for a lot of important things lately. And even if he’s not, I’m sure he’d want us to at least give BL/ind a piece of our minds. Or fists. Or guns.”

I thought back to my time with Gerard, how he was the first Fabulous Killjoy I met, he was the one to carry me and watch over me until I woke up to find him smiling at the fact that I was alive, the five days we were alone and got to know each other personally, setting out with him to Torque Tommy’s, breaking the boys out of prison together as a team, how annoying he was sometimes, and how he was there to comfort me when I got into a fight with Frank. The other guys have rescued me from time to time both literally and figuratively, but Gerard is the only one who saved me from myself, by literally telling me that I was stupid to think I should be dead. And he was right. I know now that my life is worth something and I shouldn’t insult the people who saved it by condemning it. That’s why I need to live, to keep running.

“If he is alive…” I continued, “then I have to do my best to find him. He’s done a lot for me, and after all, we never got to finish writing our song together.”

Frank smiled up at me. “I’m glad to have you on board. Now what about you guys?”

Mikey and Ray glanced at each other. Mikey shifted in his seat. “There’s no way I’m going back to a normal life without at least finding out for sure where Gerard is. And you crazy people tend to exceed our expectations, so I’m in.” He had pointed between me and Frank when he said “crazy people.”

Frank nodded, then turned to Ray. “So what’s it going to be, Ray?”

Ray had his arms crossed and he was looking down. “If I agree to this, we better do this the right way. And I mean planning things out all the way through, taking care of ourselves first, not doing anything risky or stupid…”

“Come on, there’s definitely going to be risk and stupidity involved,” Frank said with a soft chuckle.

Ray looked up at him with eyes that seemed to say “I don’t have time for your shit.”

“I mean it. We’re all coming out of Battery City alive. Make me that promise,” Ray said with that same stare at Frank.

Frank blinked and swallowed before he laughed. “You serious?”

“Deadly,” Ray replied with the same serious voice.

“Fine. I promise,” Frank said with a bitter look. “But I’m warning you, I’m known to break my promises often…”

“It doesn’t matter. As long as you mean it, I’m in,” Ray said with a stare.

Frank drummed his hands on the table before speaking again. “Okay. So, first things first: getting back to Battery City. Leya, you said you know how. So you’re going to lead the way.”

I smiled at this.

“But… how are we going to get past officials?” Ray asked. “Surely there’s a patrol. And some of those agents-in-training might meet us on the way.”

“Well… I still have that agent’s badge that I stole…” Frank suggested with a shrug.

“Yeah, but look at you and your clothes,” Ray countered. “And then the rest of us. You really think anyone’s going to think that you’re a real agent and that you’re casually just walking around with three pals?”

“Well… some people are really stupid there…” Frank started as he scratched the back of his ear.

Mikey breathed out a small laugh that was more like a puff of air through his nose. “We gotta think of something smarter. Unless you want to go around in the sewers the entire time we’re in Battery City.”

“Well… you said that you dressed in agents’ clothes to get past the officials, right?” I asked Frank. “Well, what if we do the same thing, but with the trainees? They don’t have badges yet–maybe student ID’s, but they’re not official agents yet. We can all pose as students, at least until we get to a safe place.”

Everyone was quiet.

“That’s actually not a bad idea…” Frank remarked with an approving raise of his eyebrows.

“You think it’ll work?” Ray asked with a skeptical glance.

“I don’t see why not. After all, I really am supposed to be an elite student at SCARECROW Academy. It’s all only a matter of playing the role convincingly,” I explained as I paced a short area.

“Okay, so say that we steal the clothes, get back into Battery City with Frank’s card… where do we go next?” Mikey asked.

“Easy–go with me back to Agent Jimmy’s apartment,” Frank answered with a smile. “It’s in the fifth district, so it shouldn’t be too far from the Western border. We can get there on the inner city train.”

“And then…?” Mikey asked.

“And then… we find out where the Director is and I run my sword through her,” Frank nonchalantly explained.

“Shouldn’t we try and find Gerard first?” Ray asked as he had his chin thoughtfully perched upon his fist.

“I don’t have any idea where he is…” Frank said, in a defeated voice.

“The research facility–you said that you never had enough time to tell if Gerard was one of the subjects. Why don’t we make sure of it?” Mikey suggested.

“Okay, say we do that. What if he’s not there?” Frank asked. “Last time there was that asshole agent waiting there for me. Like he knew I was going to be there, or that he was guarding something. I’m still not sure what his fucking deal was, leaving me out here alive and armed.”

“Well, this time we’ll have strength in numbers,” Mikey replied. “And whatever the reason he had for leaving you out here, he can’t have expected you to survive very long, since those agents-in-training have been continually sent here to kill anything that moves.”

“So I was just here to be the little fox to their dumb hunting hounds, you say,” Frank muttered.

Something about what Zack told me yesterday came into my mind: _“Why don’t you just shoot me? That’s what you Killjoys came here to do, right? To kill me and my friends.”_ Maybe this was more complicated than we thought. Speaking of Zack, I wonder if he ever got out of that bind I put him in… Why does that worry me?

“It’s just… why didn’t he kill me? The Director was all set on killing me before I escaped. I meet some flunky at the research facility and he puts me to sleep and leaves me out here as hunting bait?” Frank stared nowhere as his mind was still working out something.

“Whatever the reasons for all the weirdness, it’s clear that we have to go to this research facility if we want to find Gerard,” Ray told us. “Maybe we can also get answers on what happened to Mikey. You know, with the data from the experiments.”

Mikey looked over at Ray, and then down. It was clear that this idea appealed to him.

“Fine. We’ll go to the research facility,” Frank replied. He breathed in a deep sigh. “Here we go again…”

  
  


We got packed and ready to go, but left a considerable amount of gear at the restaurant. It’s not exactly like we can climb through a tunnel with two motorcycles, so we had to take only what we could carry. We’d have to leave the bikes too, hidden somewhere safe.

The plan was to steal the clothes off of the agent trainee’s backs. Although, preferably we want to avoid a fight, so we’ll have to get them off of dead bodies. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it.

At the back of my mind, I thought about Zack. If he was still where we left him, and if the guys tried to get his clothes… he would be furious, for one thing, and it would be kind of difficult to get the clothes off of him while he’s awake. And if he wasn’t there at all, and had escaped out of the bind, had gone back to Battery City to tell everyone I’m back, or if he stayed somewhere in these borderlands, reckoning on killing us all the first chance he could–In any case, it would be best to avoid him.

Since we last dusted agents in the large building that held the tunnel to Battery City, we waited until we got there to find some bodies to skive the uniforms from. Some of the bodies were already smelling. It was grossing me out, I thought I was going to hurl.

“Look… this was your idea, remember?” Frank told me as he got to work undressing the soldier whose clothes I was going to wear.

“Yeah,” I said while trying not to breathe in too much of the air around me. “But…dead bodies? I’ll have to wear a dead man’s clothes? Do you know what it’s like having someone else’s blood on you for an extended period of time?” I asked as I felt myself getting even more anxious.

“Actually, I do…” Frank told me with a serious expression in his eyes. “And this wouldn’t be the first time I’ve worn a dead man’s clothes before he even decomposed.”

“I guess… I guess blood just freaks me out,” I said as I crossed my arm to soothe the goosebumps that sprouted on them. I had been thinking back to the raid in Zone 18, and how Diamondback had bled so much into my black shirt. I had to run and sleep in that shirt for three days until I could wash it. It just made me feel cold and…

“Worry not,” Frank said as he stood up with the clothes in hand. “This guy got a shot to the head, and his helmet kept most of the…well, the unpleasant stuff in there. So his clothes are blood-free. We’ll find you another clean helmet.”

Now thinking about getting Zack’s clothes and helmet didn’t seem like such a bad idea because at least he was still alive… but it was too late for that.

Frank walked up to me and handed me the clothes. “It’ll only be for a little while, okay?” he told me with a sympathetic expression in his eyes. “You’re tough enough to handle it.”

I smiled at this. “Okay.”

We all put on the black uniforms over our own clothes. Mine were huge on me, obviously because I’m so small, so I had to roll up the pants four times and the sleeves twice just to look like they kind of fit me. The pants were still really baggy, but at least the shoulder and chest armor hid how big the shirt was on me.

“Just kind of lurk behind us if any agents see us,” Frank said with a small laugh. “That way, you’ll at least be able to physically hide from them since they won’t see you.”

“Yeah, we’ll just say you’re related to Frank, and that’s why you’re so small,” Ray laughed.

Frank made a bitter face at Ray while Mikey and I laughed.

“Whatever, let’s just go find this tunnel already,” Frank replied. “Lead the way, Leya!”

I remembered only so much about when I was here after the Cleanout. I remember just following a couple rebels who also got out past the agents guarding the border, and going down into a tunnel, running until I got out to a room in this building. The people I rounded up with decided to mark certain hallways and rooms with red and blue chalk, so that they could remember how to get back, if they ever needed to.

Right now, I was looking for these marks, remembering that after I arrived from the tunnel, I had to walk up a lot of stairs to find the other escapees. Eventually I found a blue mark near a stairwell on the first floor, So I led the Frank, Mikey, and Ray down into the lower floors of this building.

The last of the marks was over the doorway of one room in the center of the lowest basement level. The room was empty and littered with dust. There was no hole, no tunnel, no nothing.

“You sure this is the right way?” Frank asked.

I didn’t answer right away as I looked around the room, trying to imagine what it must look like at night. The only problem is that when I got here that night, it was pitch black, except for the small flashlights the other rebels had. I closed my eyes, visualizing the memory. I remember walking straight out of the room, so… maybe there was something behind this wall?

I started knocking on the wall, to try and find a hollow section. It took a little while, but I finally found it, maybe a few inches above the top of my head. I reached up and tried to pull out the drywall from the vertical creases around this hollow section. It wasn’t budging with my tugs, so I put all my strength into it and dug my nails into the plaster until it heaved towards me. It finally gave way with a swift crumbling sound, but apparently I pulled with too much force because I went tumbling backwards with the large part of this thin wall on top of me.

I laughed as I hit the ground with my back. I looked up and saw the upside down looks of surprise on the guys’ faces. Mikey and Ray were looking ahead at the huge hole in the wall and Frank was looking down at me with great amusement.

“There you go,” I announced up to them with a smile. “A little help?”

They worked together to lift the large piece of dry wall off of me, and Frank helped me up.

“So we just go through that large, gaping hole to the point of no return?” he asked as he faced the black tunnel in front of us.

“Well, yeah,” I replied as I dusted myself off.

“Alright then,” Frank said with a nod. “You guys got flashlights?”


	21. Chapter 21

We had only one small flashlight between us, so I took it as I led the guys through the concrete tunnel. It was cold, empty, and very dark, but there were small lanterns posted on the walls every fifteen feet, so it wasn’t completely dark in here. It got smaller and smaller as we walked on, but Frank and I had no trouble walking normally, whereas Ray and Mikey had to slightly bow their heads.

“So… How do you know about this? As a matter of fact, you never did tell us how you got out of Battery City,” Frank remarked from right behind me.

I creased my eyebrows as I turned around. “Really? I could have sworn I told–”

I know for sure that I told Gerard. And… I told Mikey. The first night we talked by the campfire. I looked at him now, and he was looking at me with the same expectant curiosity that Frank and Ray were.

“Well… it was during the Cleanout a year ago. My sister and I were part of an underground rebel society, and the plan was always to get out of here–well that was the rebels’ plan. But the time came sooner than we all expected. See, with the Cleanout, all underground groups were getting outed to the government. They were "cleaning” the city of all the rebels, who were threatening the peace.

“Apparently there were BL/ind informants among us, so officials eventually knew exactly where to find us. Rather than get arrested, we decided we were going to escape to the Zones that night, just to get it over with. There was a huge fight between the officials and the rebels, and my sister and I got separated. Somehow I got past the battle without any trouble and went down this secret hatch by following a few other rebels. I just kept running and didn’t look back. And then I was out here in the borderlands, waiting for my sister to meet up with me. But I never saw her again. After a week, I was forced to move on if I wanted to stay free.” I looked down. “You know, a week out here… it sounds like nothing compared to how long you were here. I should have just stayed and waited for Krys,” I muttered mostly to myself.

Frank moved forward and clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Come on, don’t say that. You did what you had to.”

“Your sister was the one who told you to keep running, right?” Mikey added from the back of the group. “You were just doing what she wanted and she was just trying to make sure you were safe. I get how that is… It’s the curse of being the little sibling.”

“Yeah. Well… ” I didn’t finish that sentence as I kept walking. It sounded kind of like Mikey remembered that we had this conversation before, but I couldn’t be sure. I don’t think I said anything about Krys being older than me right at this moment…so he either subconsciously remembers that or Ray told him.

Whatever. I don’t want to dwell on it. To be honest, I don’t really want to think about anything right now. It’s been months since I’ve really even spoken about this to anyone. I told Caelan and Ronnie how my sister’s been missing, but I hadn’t actually spoken of the memory since I talked to Gerard about it.

“How much further until we reach the city?” Ray asked. I’m glad he didn’t want to talk about my sister anymore.

“Maybe about twenty more minutes walking,” I answered.

“So you were in a rebel group?” Frank asked with an intrigued voice. “Well, it figures. After all, that’s how we got out, too.”

“So how did you go from the number three top student in your class to rebel Killjoy?” Ray asked with a light chuckle. “Pretty drastic career change.”

I exhaled a short breath. “Well… It’s really a simple story. Beginning of senior year in high school, I wrote a provocative essay and that got me a trip to a psychiatrist. And then I was on soul-sucking BL/ind pills for a year until my sister took them away and snapped me out of it. After that, I decided I was done with the system, so I deferred SCARECROW Academy and moved in with my sister halfway across the city. Then we joined up with rebels, who seemed to be the only people left in this city who weren’t brainwashed, and then the Cleanout happened, and I got out to the Zones with some other rebels, and a few months later, you guys found me half-dead. It all happened really fast. And here we are, a year later since I got out and now I’m going back in,” I laughed.

Frank let out a sigh. “You didn’t have to come back.”

“I wanted to. And I’m not scared this time,” I replied with a smile.

After a while, we could finally see cracks of light at the end of this tunnel that sloped upward. There were metal rungs on the narrow walls we reached. I tucked the flashlight into my right shirt pocket and climbed ahead of the guys. Once I got to the hatch, I took the flashlight out again and illuminated the dusty metal doors. There was a latch that had a small blue crystal lens on it.

“What the hell is that?” I asked. I don’t remember this. All I did back then to get into this hatch was push the handle forward and the doors opened. This time, it wouldn’t budge.

I pushed all my weight up against the latch handle again, but it just made a huge banging sound as the bone in my forearm ached.

“It looks like… like a sensor,” Frank said just below me. “Here, take my badge. Scan the bar code up there.”

I promptly took Frank’s stolen BL/ind agent card and held it up to the lens. In a second it made a high pitched “bleep” noise and I heard something click. I handed the badge back to Frank, then pushed against the latch one more time, and finally it opened up a few inches. I used the rest of my arm strength to push the doors aside as bright gray light entered the tunnel. The doors crashed onto the concrete outside as I quickly scrambled up to the top and climbed out onto the concrete myself.

I stared up around me, at the skyscrapers that towered over me, at the pristinely marked street, where few cars were going by, and over to the giant concrete wall that bordered the city from the rest of the world. It was a scene that looked very peaceful, yet the last time I was here, there were about a thousand people crowding up this square, filling it with screams, lasers, and fallen wounded bodies.

The rest of the guys came topside after me, all looking around just like I was. There were a couple agents dressed in white and with BL/ind masks on, patrolling at the wall just like we thought there might be.

“Hey! You four!” They quickly shuffled over to us.

The guys and I looked between ourselves as the agents approached. “Just act cool. I got this,” Frank quietly said as he moved in front of me, Ray, and Mikey.

“You’re SCARECROW Academy students?” one of the agents asked.

“Uh… yeah, yeah we are,” Frank answered as he lifted up the visor of his helmet.

“You guys got authorization to return?” the other one asked.

Before Frank could answer, the first one went on, “Damn, you must be the first group in about a week to come back! So what’s going on out there? We were never in the elite class, but this new test has gotta be insane to have such a large dropout rate.”

“Uh, well…” Frank started nervously.

“It’s top secret!” Ray blurted out from behind Frank. Frank turned around and gave him a bemused look.

The other agents turned toward Ray. “Top secret?” The second one scoffed. “Should have figured. It’s gotta be something crazy like that to create so many failures.”

“I don’t know…” the other one started. “I mean, they got a runt like that to pass, so it can’t be that bad.” He had pointed at me while he said that.

Frank gave this forced laugh. “Yeah, well, we gotta do what we can to protect our brave little soldier,” he said as he gave me a pat on the top of my head. I am going to hit him for this later…

“Heh,” the first agent replied. “Well, congratulations guys! We look forward to working with you in the future!”

“Yeah, thanks!” Frank warmly replied. “We’ll be on our way back now…” He turned back to us and hushed out, “start walking, now!”

We all speedily walked away towards the city, following Frank’s lead. It was weird to be back on these sidewalks, back in this gray center of corporate buildings. I’m home… although, it doesn’t feel very welcoming.

“I can’t believe they didn’t question us anymore than that!” Mikey said once we got out of earshot of the agents.

“I told you they were idiots,” Frank replied with a scoff.

“Yeah, but it’s a good thing we had these uniforms on. If we tried to get up here in our own clothes, there’s no way we would have got out of that pickle,” Ray remarked as he opened his helmet visor.

“I got my brave little soldier here to thank for that,” Frank said as he came up and patted my helmet again.

“Was that really necessary?” I irritably asked.

“Come on, we had to milk it to make it seem like a little ‘runt’ like you got out of there alive. Of course, those morons don’t realize that you could probably kick their asses with one hand behind your back.”

I felt appeased with those words.

“So where to now?” Mikey asked, getting us back to business.

“We can go shack up at my apartment–well agent Jimmy’s apartment. Then we can go to the research facility, do some follow-up investigating,” Frank answered.

“Why not go there now?” Ray asked. “While we’re still in these uniforms, and you still have your badge on you. Figure this out sooner than later.”

Frank blinked and set his mouth into a reluctant line. “Fine. Let’s go. But we’ll have to take the metro. It’s at the south end of Battery City.”

Frank started to walk with squared up shoulders and the rest of us followed. It’s still early in the day, so a lot of people must have already been at work, since we were like the only ones on the street. Although we did get a few stares from the few people we came across. I take it not too many people saw SCARECROW Academy students on the street. But come to think of it, even I didn’t know what they looked like. Not the elite class, anyway. It’s kind of strange to think that I could have had a uniform like this of my own.

We got to a metro station soon enough and went underground to catch a train on the B line, where we would later transfer to the central line.

We kept our helmets on during the train ride, so that no one would recognize or question us. Frank protested to this, saying that the Director doesn’t want anyone to know who we are, so we might as well give her the opposite. However, Ray countered that if she found out that not only Frank, but that he and Mikey were in Battery City, it would be insanely easy for her to keep us from getting to her. Ray had a point—even if the Director doesn’t want other people to know, the only chance we have of cornering her is through sneakiness and stealth—none of which we’ll have if she knows we’re here. Of course, I’m not even sure my identity is worth hiding. I’m only worried about someone I used to know recognizing me…

It took us about twenty minutes to get to the stop nearest the research facility. After this, Frank instructed us to walk about half a mile until we got to the bottom of a barren hill where a large white building sat. The grass on its front lawn was super green and when I looked up at the acronym “BLIRF” I couldn’t help laughing.

“Ha, ha… 'blirf’…” I said mostly to myself.

“Right?!” Frank told me with a giggle of his own.

Ray had his hands on his hips. “So… where do we look?”

Frank turned to him. “The Psych ward. Third floor, I think. And then… well, I’m sure I’ll remember it up there. There’s a directory if we get lost, too.”

The rest of us nodded and then followed Frank to the front door, where he scanned his BL/ind card and got us in. Once we got in, the air was cool, and I took this moment to lift the visor from my helmet. I noted just how white and pristine both the walls and the floor were. Frank immediately walked forward and turned right onto the nearest corridor, leading us to the stairwell, and then promptly the third floor.

It was quiet the entire time we walked, and I couldn’t help but wonder if we were the only people in here–considering it’s a weekday and it’s early in the day. But Frank seemed to be on autopilot, and gave no sense of anxiety or care until we reached a door on the third floor, which had only one rectangular shaped window on it.

“This is it,” Frank announced as he pulled up his visor.

Mikey immediately went forward and peered into the window. “There’s like ten people lying in beds… a lot of paperwork…” He turned back to Frank. “We should go inside.”

Frank went forward and pulled on the handle of the door. He gave a look of surprise as the handle moved down and then the door softly clicked open. He looked at each of us with his jaw dropped. “Last time I was here, the door was locked.”

“Probably because you were here late,” Ray replied.

“But the research facility was still open,” Frank answered with a bent brow.

Mikey pushed the door open. “Look, none of that matters. The door’s open, so why don’t we just go in already?”

He walked forward into the room and the rest of us followed. It was quiet in here, too, except for the soft beeps of monitors hooked up to the ten people who were lying in beds. They all had their eyes closed and seemed to be unconscious. Some of them had bandages wrapped around their heads. The rest simply looked pale, almost comatose. But as we looked at each of them it was clear that none of them were Gerard.

Ray, Mikey and Frank went on to look at several of the papers stacked and filed on top of nearby desks. I decided to look around the rest of the room, noticing plaques of certificates and colorful models of the human brain.

“There’s a computer here,” Ray told the others.

“Can you hack it?” Mikey asked.

“And look for what?” Ray asked.

“Well… does it say anything about the experiments? All we found over here were scribbles, observations of symptoms in the patients, and blank sheets of data boxes,” Mikey complained with a sigh.

“I can try and hack it but…” Ray typed in several keys and the computer popped up with a message “Error: first attempt login fail”.

“If I keep trying and failing, this computer might lock up. They’ll know someone was in here…” Ray muttered. “Sorry, Mikey, I can’t really help you here.”

“It’s okay,” Mikey said with a downward stare as he crossed his arms.

Frank, meanwhile, had been walking around the rest of the room, huffing in disappointment. “There’s nothing here!” he exclaimed.

“Keep your voice down,” Ray softly scolded. “They could just be sleeping,” he referred to the patients.

Frank stalked toward him and whispered in a hiss. “There has to be another room where they’re keeping patients. Why only ten? And why isn’t the data telling us anything useful?”

“I don’t know…” Ray replied as he stood up from the computer desk. “We can try and look around the rest of this building, see if there’s more rooms.”

We did just that, and looked into literally every single room on this floor. There was no sign of Gerard anywhere, or any other experiment guinea pigs besides the ten we saw in the first room.

I had been quiet this whole time, letting the guys do their own thing. But if I’m being honest, I don’t think Gerard’s here.

“He’s not here,” Frank bitterly announced while we were in the last room, which looked like a classroom with five rows of black desks, a white board, and even a small gray podium at the front of the room.

“Well–” Mikey started, but Frank didn’t let him finish as he looked down and left the room with a clenched jaw.

I sped after him into the hallway. “Where are you going?”

He kept walking. “Plan A was a bust. Now I’m starting Plan B.”

I blinked in confusion, and looked back to see if Ray and Mikey would follow. I didn’t see them come out of the room, so I decided to follow Frank before we lost him again.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“I’m getting revenge. For Gerard, for Rina, for Masaki and Henry, and us. Wait.” He stopped in his tracks. Then he sped off in the opposite direction of the hallway.

“Frank, wait!” I called after him as I started running. He went all the way to the stairwell and quickly sprinted down, level after level until he got to the bottom floor.

“Frank,” I breathlessly called once he finally stopped at the directory of the basement floor. “Why are we down here?”

“I’m finding out what happened to Rina,” he told me as he started off again down the corridor. I followed him as he kept his eyes up to look at each door’s number.

“B351. This is the physics lab,” he said out loud. I’m not sure he was talking to me, since that meant nothing to me.

He opened the door and stepped inside. I caught the swinging door and followed. In here was a large white room with high ceilings and what looked to be several clear glass chambers, and a bunch of tables filled with scribbled graph paper, beakers, pipes, and burners. There were several white boards propped up with a bunch of equations, symbols, and unfamiliar terms written on them. Sitting at one of the black desks was a thin man who looked like he was in his forties, with balding light brown hair, a white lab coat on, and dark circles under his eyes.

“Excuse me,” Frank boomed in a clear voice.

The man, startled, dropped his pen and shot his head up to look at us. “Oh… You guys. Aren’t you supposed to come only once a week to check us out?”

Frank cleared his throat. “This isn’t a routine checkup. Uh…”

The thin man looked at Frank with small bent eyebrows, and glanced a bit over at me, too.

“I need to ask, what do you know about the whereabouts of Rina–I mean Katarina… Katarina Kowalski?”

“You mean Katarina _Dorevsky_?” the thin man in the labcoat asked in return.

Frank cleared his throat awkwardly. “Oh, yes, Miss Dorevsky. Do you have any idea of where she is, or what happened to her?”

“Happened?” The scientist asked with a further look of confusion. “Has something happened to Rina?”

“You tell me,” Frank replied in a curt, stately voice.

The scientist balked. “I’m not sure I’m the guy to be asking… I mean, we’ve barely spoken since she quit.”

“She quit?” Frank asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, she’s done with the research. I thought you all knew that–remember? She was sick for a couple weeks and then came in to tell me she’s done and officially resigned from the research project. That’s when you guys gave me this new research assignment.”

“So you saw Rina?” Frank replied with narrowed eyes.

“Well–yeah, but that was the last time I saw her. Why, has she not been showing up to work? She looked a bit strange when I saw her, maybe her illness got worse–I should call her…” The scientist had been nervously darting his eyes around as he quickly said all this.

“Sir, please just explain to me. Do you know the current whereabouts of Katarina Dorevsky?” Frank asked with a solemn face.

“If she’s not at work, then no. I would have no idea,” the scientist succinctly answered as he stared back with a dark look.

“Work–so at BL/ind headquarters?”

“Yes, sir,” he replied with a gulp. He was looking up at Frank lividly now. “Look, I don’t know what you and your organization want from her. She’s done enough, working as a secretary and doing double shifts down here in the lab! I don’t know what you did to her to make her give up years of research on electromagnetic radiation, her baby–our–our baby! It was our dream–and I know you put her under pressure–”

“Thank you for your cooperation, sir,” Frank said, ignoring the vicious look the thin man was giving him for cutting him off. He quickly turned around and beckoned me to follow.

I did after one last glance at the man who was fuming down at his desk. He pushed at the papers on his desk and sent them flying down onto the floor.

Once Frank and I got back into the corridor, I looked up at him. “So what was–”

“Rina’s alive,” he quickly cut me off. I could see life in his eyes and either a smile or a grimace forming at the corners of his mouth.

“How do you know?” I ask.

“You heard him. Said he saw her, said she quit, that she’s at work. That means that she got out alive that night!” Frank breathlessly told me while he climbed the stairwell. “And maybe…just maybe that’s one less person I let down.”

Frank stormed up the rest of the stairs. I said nothing as we walked up and met with Mikey and Ray on the third floor.

“Where have you guys been?” asked Ray with outstretched palms.

“I have a few loose ends to tie up before I kill the Director,” Frank replied.

“What about Gerard?” Ray asked.

Frank looked down and tightened his jaw. “Gerard’s not here. I have no fucking idea where he could be and I’m done dealing with this–I can’t handle anymore disappointment–so Plan B!” His eyes were bright, but I could still see the pain through them.

“Frank…” Ray started with a sympathetic look.

“Go ahead. Be my guest and look for Gerard–I’ll handle the Director,” Frank continued. Ray seemed to give up as he kept quiet this time and breathed out a sigh.

“What did you mean by loose ends?” Mikey asked with his arms crossed.

“Rina’s alive. And I’m gonna go visit her at BL/ind headquarters,” Frank tersely replied as he started walking toward the exit.

“Are you sure that’s really a good idea?” Ray asked after Frank.

“I left her behind!” Frank shouted. “Alone… I promised her I’d get her out of here safely and I failed! But she’s alive–I just have to make sure she’s okay.”

“But you said she’s alive. She must be alright, then,” Mikey added.

“Just because she’s alive doesn’t mean she’s alright,” Frank darkly told him.

Mikey didn’t say anything in response as he bit his lower lip.

“Look… I think there’s more to it, that’s all,” Frank continued. “The guy she worked with, he said she got sick, and then resigned on her research plan and is back to work as a secretary. The Director wasn’t hesitating to kill her back then. And there’s no way Rina would ever just give up her research like that. Something sketchy happened. I don’t know… They could have done anything to her, they could have blackmailed, tortured–all I know is that I have to find her and set things right.”

Frank was giving Mikey a heavy stare, filled with something I could only describe as pleading.

Mikey nodded. “Fine. But don’t you think it’s going to be a little tricky just waltzing up into BL/ind headquarters?” For a second, I swore I could see him tremble while he said that.

“Mikey’s right. Before we rush into anymore missions, I think we need to stop, regroup, and come up with a plan. Rushing into things is how we usually end up in messy situations,” Ray told Frank.

Frank nodded. “Okay. Let’s ride the metro back and go to my place.”

We all conceded and got out of the research building. It was silent as we walked back to the metro station, even as we waited on those gray plastic chairs for our train to come.

Gerard wasn’t in the research building. Now we have no idea where he is. I keep trying to think of possibilities, but I can’t think of anything. Why on earth would the Director of BLI and the ruler of Battery City want to keep one of the most wanted Killjoys alive? I tried to think back to Korse and Sweetwater. He was going to take them back then, too… I just figured he’d be arresting them. But the Director wanted Gerard and Mikey. What for?

Something clicked into my head. How I heard about Killjoys that went into BL/ind headquarters and never came out… Gerard talking to me about Killjoys going rogue… working for BL/ind… Susana and Jonah getting “reprogammed”…. Was Gerard getting reprogrammed, too? And if so, did that mean… was he working for BL/ind?

I felt a chill run up my spine as I thought about this possibility. It was very plausible. But why would they want Gerard to work with them? Something about Gerard telling me that they wanted recruits for their army… No, not about the children or high school students like me, but about an army that “knows how to fight as well as the enemy”… Gerard’s probably the best Killjoy fighter I and most other Killjoys know. To have him on their team would be–

I felt my heart race. I looked over at the other guys, who tiredly got up as soon as the train came and opened its whirring doors for us to go inside. Should I tell them? If I told them, would they even believe me? Gerard is the only one who I even spoke about this to. They’d probably think I was just spouting out weird conspiracy theories… but what else do we have to hold onto?

I made a sigh as I got up. I can’t tell them right now. I’ll at least wait until we get back to Frank’s place. Though the train is nearly empty at our end, I can’t risk talking about this in front of regular citizens. Especially when we’re still dressed as SCARECROW Academy students. I closed the visor of my helmet as I settled into my seat next to Ray. Frank and Mikey sat opposite us, just next to the door.

I’ve got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach…


	22. Chapter 22

We got off at the District 5 center stop and Frank led us on a short walk to this tall apartment building. Inside, there was only one man at the shiny gray desk who stared ahead in boredom…or lethargy… he looked out of it.

We promptly went up one of the elevators, walked down a dimly lit corridor to the door at the end of it, and then Frank scanned his stolen agent’s card to open the door.

“After you,” he told me as he moved forward and held the door aside for me, Ray, and Mikey to walk into the apartment.

As soon as I took my helmet off, I couldn’t stop my jaw from dropping. The furniture was mostly white and black, the floor looked polished, and everything in here just looked so CLEAN! I can’t remember the last time I was in a real apartment with real furniture. And everything seemed fresh and new and there was even a regular kitchen and dining table and a TV! And just beyond the living room were large glass windows that held a great view of the city. I paused in the middle of the living room in wonderment.

“Hope you guys like the place,” Frank complacently said as he dumped his helmet onto the dining table. “It’s not too shabby.”

“Ha,” I breathed out in exasperation. He had to know how nice this was–he had to have appreciated this so much.

“Hey–you mind if I look into the bedroom?” I asked while trying not to appear too eager.

Frank softly chuckled. “Go ahead. But don’t track any dirt in there.”

I smiled as I kicked off my boots and slid the black agent pants off of my legs. I had my regular clothes on underneath the uniform, so I swiftly unbuttoned the long black shirt, too, and practically skipped over to the bedroom, before waiting for anyone else.

The bed was undone, with the white sheets folded back toward the center of the bed and the two pillows were messily tossed against the wall, but it looked very comfy. There was a night table on either side of the bed and there was a door in the wall, which I found led to a bathroom–with a shower! And a functioning toilet!

“Wow…” I softly exclaimed out loud.

“So you were doing pretty well for yourself here, weren’t you?” I heard Ray tell Frank with a laugh from the other room.

“Yeah, well… I didn’t know this was what I was getting myself into. Made the whole damn annoying thing a lot better, though,” Frank answered.

I walked back into the living room, desperately wanting to jump into one of those comfy looking couches.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look this excited about something,” Frank said with a high pitched laugh as he saw me. “Your eyes are literally sparkling right now, you know that?”

I looked down sheepishly. “Okay, well… it’s been a year since I had a nice place to sleep. And I was always kind of a high maintenance girl…”

All the guys were smiling at me. It had been such a bad day so far, that this was nice to see.

“You, high maintenance?” Frank asked with a laugh. “Well, I guess we never really had an opportunity to see that side of you in the Zones. Of course, there was that one time that Gerard did makeup on you.” He laughed, but then his face betrayed the sorrow he was feeling on the inside as the lines smoothed around his eyes and mouth.

“Well, I made do in the Zones because I had no other choice,” I went on cheerfully, as if nothing had changed in Frank.

Frank smiled softly, although now it looked like he was trying to. He looked around at Ray and Mikey. “Well, guys, make yourselves comfortable. Shower, eat, drink, whatever. Just…relax.”

After he said this, he started to take off his SCARECROW student uniform. Ray and Mikey also got busy doing the same, so I took the opportunity to sit down on the couch. I felt like I was too dirty to sit on this couch, but at the same time, I never wanted to get up again! It was so soft and my body just sank into the cushions. It had been a long time since I’d sat on anything so comfy. I closed my eyes and reveled in it.

A few seconds later, I felt the couch move as someone else plopped down. I blinked one eye open and saw that it was Mikey. He had taken off all his gear, even his Kobra jacket (which he kept on under the uniform) and he tiredly looked ahead of him as his dark hair fell across the sides of his face. He was slumped over with his shoulders curved forward and his arms rested across his knees.

“How you doin’?” I asked him as I brought my knees up while I sat here.

He looked over at me slowly and then smiled at the corner of his mouth. “I’m okay.”

I blinked and looked down. His mouth might have said he was okay, but his eyes said the opposite.

I heard Ray sigh as he sat down on one of the kitchen table’s chairs. “I could go for a nap right now…”

“Me too. Although, I need a shower first,” I replied.

“Go right ahead,” Frank chimed in. “There’s shampoo, soap…there’s even towels here! Are you good on the clothing, though? I mean, we got laundry service here now–”

“I’m covered, thanks,” I replied as I sat up and moved to pick up my red pack. Extra underwear and other hygienic essentials were precisely what I guarded so well in that pack. It’s what I needed to survive out on a long journey in the Zones. “But you know what? You’re a lot dirtier than us, so I think you should shower first.”

Frank scoffed. “Really, I don’t care. Go ahead. Ladies first.”

“And it’s precisely because of that ladies first attitude that I am insisting you go ahead,” I argued. “I don’t need special treatment just because I’m a girl. Besides, you’re the one who’s been in exile for a month. So shower!”

Frank put his hands up in front of him in a defensive motion. “God, I forgot how much you hated being treated like a girl…” He muttered some barely audible things as he went into the bedroom and got ready to shower. I think I heard the word “bossy” among them.

Once I heard the water running, I decided to bring up what I had been dying to talk about since we got out of the research facility. I looked at Mikey, who still looked sullen as he gazed out the window. Maybe he wasn’t the right one to talk to this about…

“Hey, I’m gonna go get a soda from the machine down the hall,” I announced as I stood up from the couch. “Ray, you wanna come with me?”

“Hmm?” Ray answered in surprise as he looked over at me. “Yeah, sure.”

Thankfully, he didn’t ask Mikey to accompany us, and Mikey just sat there in his same trance on the sofa. So I took Frank’s badge from the kitchen counter and walked outside with Ray until we got to the soda machine that was indeed at the end of the hall. No one else was around, as far as I could tell.

I leaned against the glass of the soda machine as I faced Ray. He looked at me in puzzlement, the curls on his forehead just framing his skeptical eyebrows.

“I need to talk to you,” I quietly told him in a serious voice.

“About what?” he asked as he looked around him.

“Well, Ray, you seem like the most level-headed of the guys, and those two are a little bit…explosive at times, so…”

“Go ahead and tell me,” he told me with a warm smile.

“Well, I’ve been thinking,” I started as I looked down, “about where Gerard might be.”

“You have ideas?” Ray asked as he shifted his shoulders and leaned against the wall.

“Well… I have one idea. But I’m not sure you’re gonna like it,” I told him with a wince.

“Why not?” he asked.

I breathed in deeply before answering. “When I first got out to the Zones, I remember hearing rumors that Killjoys who got captured and taken to SCARECROW were never seen again. And then Gerard and I were once talking and–he said that maybe Korse was forming an army, and Killjoys were going rogue and working for SCARECROW, and that they were the ideal soldiers because they could fight like the enemy, and then I remember how Korse told me that he took Jonah and Susana–the old couple I lived with before I met you guys–he took them because they had information and he said they were being ‘reprogrammed.’”

Ray had been looking at me intently as I spouted all this crazytalk. “Go on…” he told me.

“…Is it possible–could it be possible that maybe Gerard has been captured and is being 'reprogrammed’ to work for SCARECROW?”

Ray didn’t answer for a few seconds. I felt my face turn hot as I contemplated the craziness of what I just said. Ray had a hand up to his chin now as he considered what I said.

“So you’re saying…that Gerard was captured by SCARECROW… in order to work for them?”

I nodded with a shrug. “Yes.”

Ray went back into that contemplative look.

“I know it sounds crazy!” I blurted out. “But think about it… Frank said that the Director wanted to keep Mikey alive and that he and Gerard would be useful to her. Mikey was kept alive to get 'repaired’ and he ended up with amnesia–but he wasn’t finished–so maybe they were going to mess even more with his brain! And…what if they were already done with Gerard, so that’s why he wasn’t in the lab–because he was finished–because he’s already working for SCARECROW???”

Ray gave me a skeptical look under his furrowed brow. “That doesn’t explain why Korse took a ray gun to Gerard’s skull. If they wanted him alive, why shoot him from under his chin?”

“Look… I don’t know!” I said while trying to find more holes in my theory. “But isn’t it worth considering that maybe Gerard isn’t dead? Maybe he’s alive–but working with the enemy now?”

Ray sighed. “I can see why you didn’t want to tell Mikey or Frank now…”

I sighed. “Ray… please tell me I’m not just being crazy.”

Ray crossed his arms. “There’s definitely a possibility, but there are so many other possibilities of what could have happened to Gerard. We can’t just assume one way or another.”

“But isn’t it worth investigating? I mean, maybe we shouldn’t just straight up crash the dungeon–we should ask questions first,” I argued.

“I’m afraid you’re not going to get Frank to agree with that,” Ray replied. “But… let’s see what happens after today. And then we’ll resume your ideas.”

I sighed as I got up off the soda machine. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Should I tell the other guys?”

“Mmmm… let’s just keep it between us for now. Frank’s kind of out of control right now and Mikey… I think Mikey’s taking it kind of hard, not being able to find Gerard or find out exactly what happened to him. Let’s just go back and act natural. Until the time comes to look for Gerard again, then we can talk about it.”

“Okay,” I nodded. I turned back to the soda machine. “So which flavor do you want?”

After Ray and I returned to Frank’s borrowed apartment, Mikey, Ray, and I took turns to shower. We brought back sodas, but I immediately checked the label for the list of ingredients, and sure enough, there was “serotonin” and “GABA” written in fine print. Just like what was in my soul-sucking pills. So we dumped it down the drain. Shortly after, Frank got back on the subject about visiting Rina.

“I need to see her,” he urgently told us as we sat in his living room. “If something’s happened, I need to know–I need to help her!”

Ray gave him a look of understanding. “We get that, but… What exactly are you going to do? Just show up at BL/ind? You got caught by the Director last time–if she sees you again, who’s to say that won’t happen again?”

Frank huffed out in frustration. “I need to make sure she really is back at work as BL/ind’s front desk secretary. For all I know, she could have been arrested and just told that physics colleague of hers that she was back at work–as a cover. She was going to be killed that same night I tried to kill the Director. If she’s not dead, there has to be a special reason for it, and I need to figure that out.”

Ray crossed his hands over his knees and sighed. “You’ll need backup, then.”

“No, I’ll do this myself–I told you guys–” Frank started.

“And we told you… You don’t have to do this alone,” Mikey interrupted. “If you’re gonna do something risky, it’s better to have backup.”

Frank pursed his lips and looked to the side. “Yeah, I guess… so which one of you guys wants to come?”

“I’ll go with you!” I volunteered. “I’m not a previously wanted Killjoy, so no one’s going to really pay attention to my face. After all, I’m just a teenage girl from Battery City–well, the teenage part’s almost over, but you know what I mean.”

Frank laughed. “Okay.”

“Really?” I asked in a voice that was higher than usual.

Frank laughed again. “You sound so surprised…”

“Well, usually it’s 'Leya, stay home!’ or 'Leya, it’s too dangerous’ from everyone. It’s nice to not have to argue for once,” I said with a smirk.

“Well, don’t be surprised when you hear it from me. I have more than enough reasons to trust you by my side,” Frank told me with a bright smile.

“Thanks, Frank,” I told him with a smile.

“Alright, you guys better stop being cute before I hurl,” Ray muttered with a laugh.

“Shut up, Ray!” both Frank and I said in unison as we shot glares to our curly-haired friend.

Frank and I decided to wear street clothes, meaning he wore a suit and tie (although the jacket was a bit torn) and sunglasses to hide half of his face. I just wore my regular clothes with a hoodie pulled over my head.

As we walked down to the metro station, the sky was orange, due to the setting sun and the pollution. It was kind of beautiful how everything glowed at this time of day, especially since all the glass buildings reflected this golden light.

Frank turned to me and said, “I don’t really expect us to get into any trouble. Rina’s at the front desk, and as long as it’s only her who recognizes us, we should be good.”

“Okay,” I replied as we walked on. The street wasn’t that busy, and even though I felt a little nervous to be walking around here, it also felt a little liberating.

“It’s so weird being back here,” I said out loud. “I feel like I’ve been gone for five years.”

Frank breathed out a laugh. “Yeah, I feel like it’s been ages since I’ve been here, too.”

“Kind of weird how everything’s the same,” I mused out loud.

Life went on as usual here. People are still walking around with a dead look in their eyes, the same music plays all across town, the streets are still ridiculously clean, and everyone seems calm–like there’s not hundreds or thousands of people exiled in the Zones from a place to call home. Nothing changed. Not even after the Cleanout.

“Really?” Frank asked as he looked at me through those aviator sunglasses. “Because the last time I lived in Battery City, it looked a lot different. At least this neighborhood. It was less… perfect.”

I raised my eyebrows. “You must have been here a long time ago, then…”

“Yeah…” was all he said with a sigh.

Frank and I took a quick metro ride to the city center, and BL/ind was just across the street from the station exit.

“You ready for this?” I asked Frank.

He nodded. “Yeah. Rina’s one of the good ones, so there’s no reason for you to feel anxious around her, either.”

After we crossed the street and entered the building, Frank took off his sunglasses. I’d never been inside BL/ind headquarters, although I knew a lot of people who had parents that worked here. There’s almost no one on this ground floor and it’s pretty quiet, except for the soft elevator-like music playing the Battery City anthem. The walls are a shiny black, almost like mirrors, and there’s a single round white desk where a female receptionist is sitting.

Frank had been staring at her since the moment we stepped in. “That’s her,” he hushed out to me before he started walking forward. I hurriedly followed.

“Rina,” Frank called out to her as he walked up to her desk.

The young woman looked up with a scrutinizing expression and creased her dark eyebrows. Now that I got a better look at her, I could see that she was wearing a shiny white blouse and her dark hair was pinned into an up-do. She had a weird kind of black pill box hat on her head with a lacy veil that covered the right side of her face. It just seemed kind of odd for someone to wear inside this building.

“Rina…” Frank said again, sounding short of breath, “How are you? I mean, well, are you alright?”

“I’m sorry,” she started with a blink. “Do I know you?”

Frank’s face dropped and turned pale. “Uh–Rina, it’s me. It’s Frank.”

Rina still looked confused and uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are.”

Frank intensely stared into her dark brown eyes as he got closer, now whispering, “Rina, I’m sorry about what happened at the research facility… But it’s alright. I came back, and I’m here to help you.”

“Sir, I think you must be… mistaken,” she said, shifting her eyes while she pulled her seat farther away from the desk.

“What happened after we got to the psych lab, Rina?” Frank asked with a desperate look of pain in his eyes.

“Sir, I’m afraid I have no idea what you are talking about. Now, you must either be mistaken, or–or” she looked down at her desk, avoiding eye contact with Frank at all costs.

“What do you remember about the last four weeks?” Frank asked her then.

Rina blinked and swallowed. “I’m afraid that if you have no professional business with anyone in this building, you must leave. So please, sir, and young lady, if you have nothing to–”

“What, did they make you think you were sick?” Frank asked, looking like he was shaking now. “What did they do to you?” His voice was getting louder.

Rina looked freaked out. Her face was contorted in fear and she was raising her hand to the right side of her head. If this goes on any longer, I think we’ll be kicked out.

I gently touched Frank’s shoulder. “Frank,” I whispered. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be here. We should leave.”

He gulped and looked back at Rina. “Can I just ask you one question?”

Rina breathed sharply and asked, “What?”

“Are you happy?” Frank asked with a look of anguish.

“Am I happy?” Rina asked in perplexity.

“Are you okay? Do you like it here? Are they treating you well?” Frank continued. I looked down to see his left hand shaking.

Rina nodded. “I like my job very much here.”

“And the Director,” Frank continued.

“The Director is wonderful!” Rina exclaimed with a bright smile. She looked shocked at her own exclamation and made a small laugh. “Of course, all of us at Better Living Industries are happily assisting her in her endeavor of creating the perfect society.”

“And you’re feeling well, physically?” Frank asked.

Rina nodded. “As healthy as a horse.”

Frank seemed to make a very forced smile. “Good.” He paused. “I’ll be on my way now. Sorry to have bothered you.”

“It’s alright. Have a good day.”

Frank turned around without saying anymore.

“You too,” I told Rina as I followed Frank.

He didn’t speak until we got out of the building and rounded the corner into an alley. Just around the bend, he crouched down to the floor and sat against the wall, putting his face into his hands.

I knelt down next to him. “Frank… Are you… are you okay?”

He responded with a broken sob and didn’t take his hands from his face. I reached a hand over to his shoulder and started to rub it.

“It’s okay, Frank,” I said to comfort him.

“She doesn’t remember me,” he sobbed out. Then he sniffled into his hands. I could see how red around the eyes he was now.

“But she’s alive. And she seems happy,” I responded.

“She’s only happy because she was brainwashed to be like that. You don’t know the Rina I knew… God…” he sobbed more onto his jacket sleeve.

I exhaled. “But she’s okay. Even if you didn’t get her out of the system, she’s safe. That’s what you wanted, right?”

Frank stared forward. “If the real Rina saw what she had become… she wouldn’t have forgiven me.”

“You don’t know that,” I argued.

“Yeah, well, now she’s a puppet for BL/ind. She doesn’t even have her research anymore. I ruined her life.”

“Frank, for the last time, it wasn’t your fault! You tried to make things better, and that’s what matters! And you didn’t fail her.”

“It was so jarring. The way she looked at me… She didn’t know me at all. How much of her memory is lost? Can you imagine that? Thank God Mikey didn’t end up like that. I don’t know what I would have done if he’d gone and ended up forgetting me!” he exclaimed.

I felt a stab in my heart.

“To have someone like that, a friend, look at you like you’re some weird stranger… Is she ever even going to get those memories back? I mean, why would she? She only knew me for like… a week. I didn’t even spend that much time with her–”

He had stopped talking because I stood up. I can’t take his verbal musings anymore.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I answered.

“Don’t lie to me, Leya. I can’t deal with anymore shit right now.”

I scoffed. “You don’t want to hear it, it’s nothing.”

“Leya…” He stood up quickly and took me by the shoulders. “What’s been going on? You’ve been hiding something from me, haven’t you?”

I stared back into his angry, reddened eyes. I don’t have it in my heart to be stubborn again. I sighed out. “It’s Mikey.”

“What about Mikey?” he asked with a creased brow.

“When he got amnesia, he lost the last six months of his memory.”

“Yeah, that’s not news,” Frank replied, waiting for more.

“Which means that he didn’t remember ever meeting me, or any other memories with me, because they all happened in the six months that got wiped from his memory. He forgot all about me,” I explained while looking down.

Frank’s eyes widened in realization. “Wait a minute–you guys seemed fine back at–”

“Because we’ve had two weeks to sort everything out,” I explained. “At first… it was jarring, like you said. I thought he was dead, and then one day I find him, only to find out he doesn’t remember who I am. And he didn’t trust me, he didn’t even want to believe me–until he remembered one small memory about me. But he hasn’t remembered anything else about me since, and… well, _you_ try telling someone that you’re good friends even though you only knew each other less than two weeks! He was awkward around me and there were awkward silences between us–and there never used to be awkward silences between us! And the nightmares he had every night…he was just under a black cloud the whole time. He wasn’t the Mikey I knew. It was like he died all over again…” I said while looking down.

Frank looked angry and spoke after a few seconds of silence. “Why didn’t any of you tell me about this?”

“Because he’s been doing a lot better this past week. I don’t know if it was because of me, triggering a memory–or if it was because we started to look for you, but something inside him–the old part of him woke up, and that black cloud’s gone. That’s why it seemed kind of backwards to tell you how bad things were.”

Frank sighed.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been bottling this up and you talking about Rina like that just triggered something and–To be forgotten by a friend. To be looked at like a stranger. To lose them like that… I know how it feels.” I turned around to face him.

“You should have told me earlier… I might have said something sensitive to trigger him–or you, for that matter,” Frank muttered as he rubbed his neck.

“It’s okay. I think he’s trying to get past it, not worrying so much about what he doesn’t remember by himself, I mean,” I answered. “And honestly, it doesn’t matter to me anymore that he doesn’t remember, because we managed to become friends again.”

“Yeah, but… it has to be hard knowing that he doesn’t remember anything about you or all the times you guys spent together. I mean, you guys were pretty chummy back then,” he laughed. Then his face dropped.

“Yeah, well… the day after I found him, Ray filled him in on what happened during the time that I was with you guys, so now he knows about all the events leading right up until you guys went to Battery City to save Grace.”

Frank creased his brow as he uncrossed his arms. “Wait a minute–are you saying that before you came around, Ray never told him about you or what happened while you were with us? Not even about Sweetwater and the BL/ind prison and Korse? I thought he said he had brought Mikey up to speed about everything!”

“Well, not everything, apparently. He thought it would just hurt Mikey to know about me, or that it might bring up painful memories about when you guys went after Grace and–”

“Fucking Ray,” Frank angrily muttered. “Even after I left he still went on with that bullshit! They should have went back for you like we promised! Ray should have at least told Mikey about you!” He kicked at the wall.

I sighed. “Look, I already got over it, so you can calm down. Ray had his reasons for everything he did, and I’m pretty sure he had good intentions. I’m sorry I had to tell you like this…”

Frank looked over at me with flaring nostrils as he tried to calm down. “Don’t be sorry. If I had known about Mikey forgetting you, I wouldn’t have said a lot of those pathetic things about Rina not remembering me. Hell, I shouldn’t really be complaining. Losing Rina is nothing compared to losing Mikey.” He paused. “So Rina doesn’t remember me. She might not ever remember me. But you’re right, she’s safe. Now the only way to ensure that is to kill the Director.”

“So what are we going to do now?” I asked after a moment of silence.

“We’re gonna go home. Or at least, back to my apartment,” Frank answered. “And then, I’m going to come up with a plan to corner the Director and I’m going to kill her. Once and for all.”

“Okay,” I replied. “But just promise me that you won’t mention any of this conversation to Mikey.”

“Why?” Frank asked.

“Because he’s been feeling extremely guilty about his whole memory loss thing and he just started to get over it like a week ago. And finding you helped a lot. He’s been acting more like himself–happy–normal. I don’t want to ruin that by making him feel bad again, and if he finds out that you know how he forgot me, that’s probably going to make him feel guilty all over again. So… just don’t say anything.”

“I get it,” Frank told me with a nod. Then he quietly laughed. “I’m glad it was just this that you were fussing about.”

I bent an eyebrow up at Frank.

“Well, I’m not happy about it!” he argued with an exasperated look. “But… I’m glad it wasn’t something worse. You really got rid of that chip on your shoulder, huh?”

I smirked from the side of my mouth. “So you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” he answered with a sigh. “I’ll get over the Rina thing. Like I get over everything else. And…it could be a lot worse. Rina could be dead, but she’s not, and she has a chance at living a normal life again.”

We started to walk out of the alley and back onto the main street to go over to the metro station. The sky was turning purple now and all the bright blue and white lights were turning on all along the streets.

I made a small, reassuring smile at Frank once we passed under some of these lights. “When all this is over, we should go get ice cream.”

Frank giggled. “What the hell?”

“Ice cream always makes me feel better when I’m feeling down. And I think when this is all over, we should go and get huge ice cream sundaes or something!” I told him animatedly.

He breathed out a laugh. “Sure, why not? When all this is over…”

Something about the way he said it made me feel like it was never going to be over. There was so much sadness in his eyes, even though he was smiling at me.

 

When we got back to the apartment, Ray and Mikey were sitting on the couch, looking relaxed.

“How did it go?” Mikey asked as he turned his head to face us as we walked in.

Frank and I glanced between each other.

“Rina’s okay,” Frank finally said. “But I’m pretty sure they did something to her brain, because she has no idea who I am anymore. And she has no recollection of what went down in the research lab.”

Mikey swallowed as he looked down.

“So what did you do?” Ray asked this time.

Frank shrugged as he sank down into one of the seats at the dining table. “Nothing. She seems happy, so I let her be.”

Mikey and Ray stared at Frank with concern.

“So now… all there’s left to do is to assassinate the Director,” Frank continued while tapping his hands on the table.

“…You sure that’s a good idea?” Ray asked.

Frank closed his eyes briefly then turned to Ray. “For the last fucking time, yes. She’s done a lot of wrong and the bitch has it coming.”

Ray looked down as he folded his hands. “But… we’re not talking about simple revenge here, Frank. Yeah, she’s done a lot of wrong, but think of the consequences!”

“What consequences? She’s the bad guy! We’re supposed to defeat the bad guys!” Mikey argued.

“She’s not just the bad guy,” Ray argued. “She’s the leader of Better Living Industries, the leader of this city. Kill her, and what happens to the city, to all the people who live here?”

“My guess is they’ll be a lot better off,” Frank spat.

Ray sighed. “You’re going to cause chaos. What do you think is going to happen when the Director dies? Will she have a successor? If she does, are they going to be even more brutal than she was? If not, what is everyone going to think when they find out she’s been murdered? By Killjoys, nonetheless. It’ll be all-out war! Battery City versus Killjoys. Think about what will happen to everyone out there in the Zones.”

“It’s already all out war!” Frank yelled as he stood up. “Or have we not been fighting Dracs and SCARECROW agents for over two years?”

Ray stood up, too. “You don’t get it. Right now, things are controlled. The people in this city are oblivious to everything going on, so it’s just the police force we’ve been fighting while they have lived on in peace. But once you bring it to the public’s attention, it’s just going to look like what she made us out to be: criminals and murderers creating chaos and destruction–threatening the peace of Battery City. You think anyone’s going to think that we or any other Killjoys are the good guys after we kill their leader? You think anyone’s going to think you did them a favor?”

Frank had his fists clenched at his sides. “Let them come after me, then! Let the whole fucking world burn! I don’t care, I’m taking that bitch down if it’s the last thing I do before I die.”

Ray scoffed. “You’re so fucking eager to be a martyr, aren’t you? That’s always been your problem. It’s like you do everything with a deathwish in mind!”

“Stop it!” I finally shouted as I stood up. Everyone turned to face me. I inhaled deeply before continuing, “Just stop with the fucking arguing! You’ve barely been reunited a day and you guys are already tearing at each other’s throats.”

Frank and Ray gave each other grave side glances.

“Leya’s right,” Mikey said while remaining on the couch. “Arguing isn’t going to help anyone. I mean, look how that turned out last time.”

Frank and Ray both stared at the ground.

I cleared my throat. “Listen, you both have valid points. Frank, I’m with you; I think the Director should be ousted. She’s caused so much death and ruined so many lives, and after what happened to me, what happened to my sister and my parents, and even my old friends… I honestly think that getting her out of power would do a lot of good for this city. Even if it was chaos, I think what this city needs is a bit of chaos to get back to normal.”

Frank looked up and nodded at me. “Thank you!”

“I’m not done,” I quickly replied. “Ray has good points, too. It’s inevitable that killing the Director would result in a great backlash. Even if we weren’t caught, there’s no doubt that Killjoys as a whole would be blamed as the scapegoat. And killing the Director isn’t the same as killing SCARECROW. They would still exist, they would just be without direction–which might be even worse for us and the rest of the Killjoys.”

“Then let’s get rid of SCARECROW, too,” Frank nonchalantly replied.

I gave him a grieved look. “You talk as if that’s so easy…”

“But it is!” he argued with a pleasant tone as he turned toward me. “If we destroy SCARECROW headquarters and get rid of the woman in charge, it’s going to take a long time for BL/ind to get back on its feet.”

“That’s your master plan? Just take down SCARECROW and the Director in one shot?” Ray skeptically asked. “That’s madness.”

“So what are you saying? We just give up on the whole thing?” Mikey asked. “What would Gerard do?”

We were all silent then. What _**would**_ Gerard do? Would he fight? Would he surrender?

Frank heaved a huge sigh. “I’ve got it.”

The rest of us looked up at him.

“I’ll do this on my own. None of you need to back me up. I said I was going to do this on my own, and that’s what I’m going to do. _I’m_ going to kill the Director. _I’ll_ get all the backlash. And it’s not because I’m a martyr, it’s because deep in my heart, I know that’s the only course of action I have to take. It’s gotten way too personal between me and her.” He looked at each of us in turn. “If you guys want to get out, get out now while you still can.”

Mikey heaved in a deep breath as he stood up. Then he gave Frank a serious gaze. “You’re not the only one who wants revenge. She took my brother and she fucked up my head. And I’m not leaving Battery City until I get even. I don’t care if I go down burning with the world.”

Frank nodded. Then he looked between me and Ray. “So what’s it going to be, you two?”

I looked down nervously.

Ray spoke up. “You two are my brothers. I don’t agree with your course of action, but I’m not letting you go into the fray alone. We’re sticking together this time, and we’re all getting out of here alive.” Although the words were tender, Ray looked angry.

Frank stepped toward Ray. “Thank you. It means everything to me to have your support.”

Then he looked toward me. “So what’s it gonna be, Princess?”

I took in a gulp. My heart’s racing, and I feel a little scared. The dangerous nature of the task at hand just became real for me.

“You know my feelings about the Director,” I finally said. “I’m ready for her tyranny to end, even if it means the end of the world. I don’t know what’s going to happen after we kill her, and that scares me. But you three are the closest thing I have to family right now, and I’m sticking with my family. I’m not living in a world where you guys are dead again.”

Frank nodded. “Thanks. We’re all gonna come out of here alive, though. That’ll be our sweet revenge against the Director.”

Ray smiled for the first time since Frank and I got back. Mikey nodded with a passionate look.

“Let’s do this for Gerard,” Mikey announced.

“And for all of our friends,” Ray added.

“And for ourselves,” I added.

“For all of us,” Frank rang out. “For every single person who has been hurt by BL/ind… the Director, Korse, SCARECROW… you’re all going down!”


	23. Chapter 23

I looked into the reflection of one of the glass windows of the building, just to take one last evaluating look at myself before I went in. My hair looked neat, low side ponytail with curled hair, eyes perfectly mascara-ed and eye-lined, the rosy-colored lipstick neatly stained onto my lips, and my black blazer over a white buttoned blouse and skinny black slacks didn’t make me look out of place. Another brief brush of my side bangs, and then I took in a deep breath.

It’s gonna be alright… We had five days to plan all this out. It’s an ingenious plan. All I have to do is blend in. _**Blend in.**_

I squared up my shoulders and walked the remaining fifteen feet to the front entrance of BL/ind headquarters and opened the glass door. Inside, few people were walking in, out, or to the elevators, just like the other day I was here. And just like the other day, there was Rina, sitting at her white desk, looking busy at work.

I swallowed and then went up to the desk. She has her dark, straight hair down today, with an extremely large brooch on the right side of her head. This girl and headwear, I swear–Oh wait…she’s been experimented on, hasn’t she? She must be hiding a scar…

“Excuse me?” I finally asked in a polite voice.

Rina looked up with her doe-like dark eyes, an expression of curiosity in them. “Yes, how can I help you?”

It seems like she doesn’t recognize me from the other day…

I cordially smiled and answered, “Hi, I’m a college student from BCU. I’m trying to get an internship here at BLI corp and I was wondering if I could see some forms or if there was someone that I could talk to.”

Rina blinked and I could see her thinking. “Oh, well it’s a little late in the year for spring internships to start. But I could check on the employee database just to see if you can’t still get one. If there aren’t any positions available, would you consider a summer internship?”

“Yes, that would be great,” I said with another bright smile.

As Rina kept her eyes focused on the computer, I slowly moved my eyes to the right, looking through my peripherals to see if Ray had made it to the elevator yet. He just walked into the building, wearing his suit and tie, and his sunglasses. Looking like a perfect secret service agent, if you ask me.

I turned my eyes back and Rina was still typing and looking at the computer screen. A few seconds later, she took her hands from the keyboard and turned to me. “It looks like there’s still one internship position left. Would you like me to get you the forms?”

“Yes, thank you,” I politely replied. Rina smiled and turned around, searching around the small rectangle slots of documents bunched up behind her desk.

With Rina’s eyes below the desk, I took this moment to fully turn my head around and see Ray just get into one of the elevators traveling down. Whew…

“….And here we are!” Rina practically sang out. “Make sure to get that bottom line signed by your advisor, and we’ll also need copies of your transcripts, and a current resume.”

“Oh, is that it?” I asked, making sure to smile.

Rina nodded as she clasped her hands. “That’s it.”

“Thank you so much for your help!” I replied to her with an intentionally bubbly smile.

“You’re welcome! And good luck,” she said with a stunning smile herself.

I turned around and focused on not walking away too quickly. Or too slowly, either. Once I exited the building and turned left, I breathed out a deep sigh and headed to that same alley where Frank and I talked the other day. I kept walking and eventually came across a small intersecting alleyway where Mikey and Frank were waiting. Mikey was wearing a BL/ind agent’s white uniform minus the mask and Frank was wearing a SCARECROW Academy student uniform with the visor of the helmet lifted up.

“So…?” Frank started.

“He’s in,” I affirmed with a nod, referring to Ray.

“Awesome,” Frank replied with a raise of his eyebrows. “Now it’s time for phase 2. Mikey, you’re up.”

Mikey nodded and then turned to me. “Here’s your gear,” he said as he handed me a sack containing SCARECROW Academy student armor, a helmet, and my boots. I took the sack and immediately took off my blazer, blouse (I had a black camisole under), flats, and slacks to reveal the jeans I was wearing underneath before I put on my boots, gloves, and elbow and knee pads.

I gave Frank my business clothes, which he put into a backpack for safekeeping. I’ll need them again later.

“Don’t forget to tell Ray to cut off all wireless and radio communication from the moment you guys get there,” Frank said with a concerned look at both me and Mikey.

“We’ll be okay,” I told him with a smile.

“Yeah,” Mikey added with a smile of his own. “This is gonna be a piece of cake!”

I had just finished putting on my helmet when we heard a crackling sound. It was Frank’s radio receiver that was in his pocket.

*CRACKLE* “Yo, I got in.”

It was Ray’s voice.

“Awesome!” Frank talked back into the receiver.

“Yeah, it should take me a few minutes to hook up to the system, find out where everything’s set up. Are Mikey and Leya on their way to SCARECROW yet?” *BEEP*

*BEEP* “They’re just about to leave,” Frank said into the receiver. “Be careful, Toro.”

*CRACKLE* “I’m always careful,” Ray retorted. “Good luck, Mikey and Leya!”

“Thanks!” Mikey and I said once Frank put the speaker closer to us.

“You guys better get going,” Frank said as he started to stretch his arms.

“Alright,” I answered.

“See you soon,” Mikey told Frank as he patted his elbow.

Mikey and I quickly headed off towards SCARECROW at a brisk pace. SCARECROW is just literally two blocks behind BL/ind headquarters, which we can take this alley straight to. With that proximity, it’s easy for the Director to call up her troops to defend her. Which is why we’re going to make that impossible. By blowing up SCARECROW headquarters.

“Remember to act like a soldier,” Mikey told me as we neared the back of this almost normal looking building. “That means you don’t speak unless spoken to. And you’ll only answer to me. Or someone of a higher rank.”

“Okay,” I answered, already knowing this information from when we planned it out two days ago. I picked up the radio receiver from my pocket and pressed the button to talk. “Ray, we’re at SCARECROW.”

*BEEP* “Okay, shutting off the wireless communication now. Good luck,” Ray told us before beeping out.

Mikey and I shared a look of accord before going down a ramp that led to the back entrance of the place. I stayed behind Mikey, letting him lead. Hopefully with our uniforms, we weren’t too out of place in plain sight.

He got to the door and scanned the BLI agent card. The flashing of a blue light while it beeped meant we were in.

“Come on,” Mikey said as he held the door open for me.

When we walked in, it was dark and only a couple agents were on this floor. Mikey and I walked past them down the gray hallway, Mikey simply nodding to them as we passed by. I decided to do the same as I walked right behind him. I breathed a sigh of relief into my helmet as no one seemed to make any sort of alarm or express confusion at an elite class SCARECROW Academy student being here. Mikey seems completely calm. Then again, I do remember him telling me that he once impersonated as a BL/ind agent before, so he probably already knew what to do.

We walked on through the hallway until we turned right into a stairwell. The plan was to set up two bombs, the reason being that we weren’t sure that one bomb would be enough to take out this place. The first would be on one of the middle floors. Somewhere with unstable architectural structure. The second was to be in one of the sub level floors, to make everything collapse on itself. Preferably near the boiler room to get maximum combustion.

I looked up and noted the cameras resting in the corners of the hallways.

“I have just one concern,” I said to the guys back when we were planning this mission a couple days ago. “How are we supposed to set up two bombs without getting caught on camera?

"There’s always one place where there are no cameras in a building,” Ray qualified to my objection.

“And where’s that?” Frank had asked.

The bathroom.

The hard part was making sure that SCARECROW even had a bathroom on one of the middle floors. We were banking on practical architectural planning for this to work, and luckily there was a bathroom on the third floor.

Mikey and I slipped into the ladies bathroom, considering that there were more stalls in there than in the men’s. I’m sure almost no one used this bathroom because it was dusty in the corners, and it’s very rare to find any frequented place dusty in Battery City, including bathrooms. Come to think of it, I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen female BL/ind agents. I mean, I guess it’s possible to become one, but it must be pretty rare. Which seems kind of fucked up…but in a way, maybe a little better that they don’t let everyone just become a BL/ind agent–of course, now is not the time to be debating this in my head…

“I’ll go set it up in the corner, you keep watch,” Mikey told me as he went over to the corner stall and gently set down his backpack. I stayed by the door, keeping my ears poised to hear for the slightest noise in the hallway.

We got our bombs from ex-rebel dealers…in the sewers. It was Ray’s idea to get in touch with some of their old acquaintances, who were surprisingly still in the city. The bombs aren’t that big, only a little bit bigger than the size of my face. The guys were talking about all this technical mumbo jumbo, but all I could understand was that they’re pretty powerful bombs.

I heard a small “beep” and Mikey got up, pressing a button on the electronic watch he was wearing. “Alright, that’s done. 30 minutes counting down, now let’s get down to the basement.”

I nodded and we both carefully walked back out into the hallway and toward the stairwell again. We quickly made our way down the stairs until we got to the second sub-ground level. This time we found ourselves in a section of the building that was supposed to be where the boiler room was. It was large and lit up with green-hued lights hanging from the ceiling off of long cords, run over with a jungle of pipes and different machines that I had never seen in my life. Metal framed walkways floated above us with even more pipes hanging overhead. I’m guessing it was all the electrical stuff to power the building. Perfect place to put a bomb, really.

“Our best bet is to just stick the thing in the center,” Mikey told me as he lifted his mask up over his eyes.

I nodded in agreement and we found a large cylindrical machine that had a sticker with the label “fire danger”. As Mikey set up the bomb on the cylinder, I looked around, feeling a bit creeped out by the long, empty cement pathway and the sense that we were being watched. It didn’t help that we were the only ones in here making a sound.

Mikey locked the bomb into place and pressed the button. The clock started counting down from 24:59. “Alright. Time to get out of here,” he told me.

“Oh, you aren’t leaving now are you?” a voice rang out from somewhere nearby.

I felt chills run up my spine and whipped around, looking for the source of the voice. It sounded all too familiar…

Mikey started inching backwards and told me, “Start toward the exit. I’ll handle whoever this is.”

I started to walk quickly while keeping my gun raised to the level of my chest. Mikey was nimbly walking backwards at my pace, looking in front of him with his mask still raised above his forehead.

I was just about ten feet from the exit door when flashes of light came through my peripheral vision.

“Duck!” I yelled out as I darted to the floor.

Mikey dropped to his knees and looked around for the source of the lasers. I looked around frantically, and finally I saw behind a throng of pipes… it was Korse. He was wearing his usual gray suit, sleeves and collar as frilly as ever.

“What are you two doing, planning to blow up SCARECROW headquarters? You’re not agents. And I’d know that face anywhere,” he said as he looked at Mikey. “The face of the one who ruined my illustrious career. The Kobra Kid…” he sneered with a glare.

Mikey had already stood up by this time and ripped off the BL/ind mask completely, throwing it down to the ground.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he replied, giving Korse a solid look of fury.

Korse smiled, but soon it contorted into a creepy kind of sneer. “I should have known you’d be back eventually. Of course, I had rather hoped that the operation had done enough damage to keep you from returning. Oh well, we can’t have everything, can we?”

“In a few minutes, you’re not gonna have anything, you old coot. Or should I even call you that–you hunk of scrap metal and saggy skin?” Mikey was grinning as he insulted Korse. It was amazing–here was Kobra Kid, back with the fearless attitude I used to know him for.

Korse started to shake, looking like he was literally boiling from anger. “How dare such a lowly insect like you insult me? Have you forgotten what I did to punish you for insulting me the last time?! Oh, that’s right–you _**did**_ forget!”

It was Mikey’s turn to shake in anger as he shot his ray gun at Korse, who had ducked just in time.

Korse made a haughty laugh as he crawled behind more pipes. “Tell me–how much of your memory got wiped? I would much rather have killed you on the spot, alas, orders are orders. So I did the next best thing. I sent you to get the wrong experimental procedure done–the one that produced failure–so that you’d have all these holes in your head. I had really hoped for motor function loss, but the Director still needed you physically intact.”

“So it was you,” Mikey sneered with a brutal glare. “You’re the one that did this to me!”

Korse sent a snake-like look of glee at him. “Yes, it was me. I had more than enough reason to punish you–oh, all those months ago when you beat me so badly it took me a week to get repaired–tell me, do you remember even that far back? And then when you came to take your little pet Grace back, and you shot me in the leg! But oh, I finally got my opportunity to retaliate that same night. You were wounded, vulnerable on the ground, lying in your own blood–and yet you still had the nerve to be cheeky with me! Oh, how I wanted to rip out your lungs at that moment,” he wistfully said with a wheezy laugh.

“As brilliant as it was, all my efforts were for naught. Once the Director found out what I had done, she grew furious. She was upset–as if I had kicked a puppy of hers! And then…” he shook as his lips grew thin. “I got DEMOTED. Me, demoted! All because I wanted to get a little payback!” Korse wasn’t laughing anymore. He started to walk closer to Mikey and me. “She could have still used you… Perhaps you’d be a little bit damaged, but you were going to be a puppet of hers anyway– _but then she had to go and trade me out for that filth_! For that disgusting new general of hers–the man in black–to lead all the new soldiers! All of my soldiers–now they are his! All because YOU and your friends kept damaging my circuits until I wasn’t fit to be her general any longer! All because you lot wouldn’t stay dead!”

Korse jumped out of his hiding place as he shot a barrage of lasers at Mikey and me. I ducked behind large pipes as Mikey ran in the opposite direction.

“You won’t escape this time. See, the Director no longer has a need for either of us! So I am free to do as I choose! Free! To finally exterminate the Kobra Kid!”

“It’s just Kobra Kid!” Mikey growled out as he shot a bunch of lasers into Korse’s chest. Korse bent over a little unnaturally as sparks began to fly from his chest and back.

He smiled an evil smile and held up his ray gun. “You won’t get rid of me that easily. I am not mortal, you see. That is why I did not die when that little friend of yours pushed me into an electrical fence. Of course, it killed the poor dear, didn’t it?”

“Think again,” I said as I stood up and raised up my visor.

“Leya, don’t!” Mikey yelled out at me.

Korse showed a mild look of surprise. “I must say… It’s getting a little old that you all keep coming back from the dead. However, I will be glad to kill you again.”

“You’re not going to kill me,” I argued. “And you’re not going to kill Kobra Kid. And you’re not going to kill anyone else. The only one who’s dying today is you!”

“Don’t make me–gwah!” Korse had his back turned the entire time from Mikey, who had taken the chance to sneak up right behind the android and shoot a laser into the back of his skull.

Korse staggered, and bent low to the floor. Mikey stood over him with his ray gun pointed down, an intense glare still on his face. Korse had sat on his knees and wasn’t moving anymore, sparks flying out of his head.

A smile started to involuntarily spread on my face. Mikey glanced up at me, and smirked from the side of his mouth, too.

“You did it!” I exclaimed as I started to walk up to him.

Mikey breathed out deeply with a smile as he stepped over Korse’s body and started to walk toward me. “Yeah. I guess I did…”

“How many times do I have to tell you–YOU CAN’T KILL ME!” Korse had roared out. He raised his ray gun and shot out at me and Mikey again. The shots were clumsy this time, ricocheting against everything but us. Korse had stood up and was staggering over to us.

“Damn it!” Mikey cursed as he lunged out of the way again.

I put my visor back down and hid behind a tangle of large pipes that were low to the ground.

“Silly children… You can’t kill an android. For we are invincible!” Korse was shrieking out now. I think the laser shot to the head made him even more demented.

“There has to be a way to destroy him!” I yelled to Mikey, who was across the open pathway from me.

But he didn’t answer me. He was busy looking around him. He finally turned to me. “Hold him off! I’ll be right back!”

“What?” I exclaimed as Mikey went running off through the jungle of pipes.

“Come out, come out, wherever you aaaaaare!” Korse taunted as he came staggering up near where I was hiding. “I have thermal vision, you idiots! You cannot hide from me!”

I slowed down my breathing and tried to concentrate. I have to hit the target… I have to hit the target…

I steadily raised my ray gun in both hands and jumped to the side of my hiding place, giving me a clear shot of Korse. I shot out three times, hitting his wrist, so that he dropped his ray gun. He reacted late and took two seconds to bend down to pick it up.

I took this chance to run forward and kick at his head. My boot struck with precision into his nose, and it sent him falling backwards. Even though I was wearing boots, the kick still hurt. Probably because there was metal in his skull.

I shot down at him again, hitting his neck, his chest, and shoulder. Korse quickly turned his head back forward to face me and lunged out, grabbing a hold of my left knee.

“Let go!” I yelled as I shot another laser into his head.

His grip slackened for a second, so I pulled away sharply, ripping my pants in the process. But the motherfucker still wasn’t dead.

“Leya, move out of the way!” Mikey yelled as he came running forward down the main pathway. With a red axe in his hands.

I felt my eyes widen and backed up as far as I could from Korse. Mikey had the axe raised high above his shoulder as he ran forward. Korse only had time to look up in shock as Mikey came running and swinging down onto his neck. Korse put his hands up in defense, but Mikey quickly hacked again, sending Korse’s electronic head rolling and sparking about ten feet behind him. Mikey roared and grunted as he continued to hack at Korse’s body, spitting up more wires, sparks, and chips of bent metal.

I raised the visor up from my helmet and looked down at the debris. Korses’s head had stopped sparking and the eyes were black and staring into nothing. His body was hacked into pieces, several of them sparking and smoking on their own.

Mikey finally stood up, the sweat dripping down from his tousled dark hair down to his neck. He threw down the axe with a loud clang and stood there in the same spot, breathing hard.

Now he really did it.

He destroyed Korse.

He turned to me with tired eyes. “You don’t have any idea how satisfying that was…”

It took me a second to respond because I was still in shock. “Actually, I think I do…”

Mikey turned his eyes back to the ground at Korse. I did, too, as I thought to myself that this evil man, or robot, he’s dead. Somehow I feel like… like justice has finally been served.

Diamond, you and Jax and Sniper… you’re finally avenged.

“We should get going,” I finally told Mikey.

He nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. How much time do we even have left in here?” He walked up to where we planted the bomb. “23 minutes.”

He turned toward me and waved a hand tiredly. “Come on, we gotta get out of here quietly.”

Mikey bent down to the floor to pick up his mask, and then I started to walk beside him. “So where’d you get the axe from?” I asked him.

“It was in one of those glass boxes, for emergencies,” he answered. “I saw it near the entrance when we walked in.”

I nodded, and then we were silent for a few seconds.

Then Mikey turned to me. “What do you got that weird look on your face for?”

I had been suppressing the urge to smile and leave my mouth open in awe. Which probably left my face looking odd.

“That was probably one of the most badass things I’ve ever witnessed,” I told him with a laugh.

Mikey laughed in return. “Yeah, well… I couldn’t have done it without your help.”

I smiled at this. Mikey smiled back just before he put his BL/ind mask on again. I put my visor down, too. Then we made our way through SCARECROW without a commotion. Korse had most likely not told anyone we were down here, due to him wanting to take us out on his own to get all the glory.

Mikey and I ran all the way back to the alley next to BL/ind headquarters, where Frank was waiting in the dark. When he spotted us, he got up quickly from his resting spot against the wall. “Hey guys–did you do it?”

“Mmhmm,” I answered. “We sacked Korse, too.”

Frank’s eyebrows shot up. “You mean–”

“He’s dead. Or destroyed,” Mikey cut in after he ripped off his BL/ind mask. “Anyway, he’s gone for good.”

Frank swallowed as he took this in. “Wow… this is working out better than I expected.”

“We’re far from done, though, so we better get moving fast,” Mikey said as he started taking off his BL/ind uniform. “There’s only about ten minutes left before the bombs go off.”

I had already started to take off my SCARECROW student gear as Frank bent down to the ground and took my business clothes out from the backpack he had brought.

“Ray’s going to have the wireless connection blocked until those bombs go off,” Frank said as he handed me my slacks and blouse. “Which means you’re on your own up there, Leya. So if anything happens, you just run. Got it? Just run, hide–do whatever you can to survive.”

“I got it,” I said as I strapped on my elbow and knee pads over my white blouse and jeans. I then slipped on the black slacks again.

“Frank and I will be able to meet you shortly after that,” Mikey told me as he finished taking off the white BL/ind agent pants, revealing his black jeans. “And Ray will turn back on the communication once the two bombs go off. All you have to do is keep an eye on the Director.”

“I got it,” I repeated, stressing the words this time as I slipped on the black blazer. I then started to smooth out my hair and comb it back into the neat side ponytail I had on earlier.

“How does my makeup look?” I asked the guys.

Frank smiled and Mikey looked uncertain of what to say.

“You look beautiful, kid,” Frank told me.

“You sure? My lipstick isn’t smudged or anything, my eyes don’t look like panda eyes?” I asked, feeling critical of Frank’s appraisal.

“You look fine,” Mikey almost growled out, looking exasperated.

I raised my eyebrows at this. “Well, geez… just trying to make sure…”

“Better get going, Leya,” Frank told me as he patted my arm. “Don’t forget to keep this in your ear,” he said as he handed me a receiver, with a set of ear buds this time. “We’ll meet you up there soon.”

“Be careful,” I said just before taking the receiver and turning to leave again. I may be dressed in business attire again, but I kept my boots on this time. There’s going to be a battle, so I’m gonna need to be as prepared as I can be.

I briskly walked back to the front of the building, which had lit up for nighttime already. Rina was still at her desk, doing something on the computer. I could try and get to the elevator without her looking, but if she saw me she’d get curious. So I decided to go back up to her desk with the papers in my hand from before.

“Oh, back so soon?” Rina asked.

“Well, I figured since I was in the area and that I already had everything except my transcripts and the signature ready, that I could meet with Human Resources directly, you know… Make a good impression,” I said with an airy shrug.

Rina studied me for a few seconds. “You’re supposed to hand in your applications at the front desk.”

“Yeah, I know,” I started, “But if I could just meet with the Human Resources Director, I think that might give them a better idea of who they’re hiring. All I need is five minutes.”

Rina seemed to be thinking this over skeptically.

“I promise that when I get hired, I’ll get you your coffee everyday that I work here,” I told Rina with a smile.

She sighed. “Fine. Deal. You’re going to want to go up to the 88th floor. The Human Resources office on the 86th floor was destroyed in that blast from a month ago…” Rina started to stare at nothing in particular and stopped talking. I looked at her to make sure she was alright, but a second later, she put a smile on her face and said. “Good luck!”

“Um, thanks!” I replied as I started to walk away.

“Wait!” Rina called out before I even got five steps away from her desk. Crap. What did she notice?

She got up from her desk and walked over to me as I turned around.

“Here,” she said as she reached up a hand to the left side of my head and stuck a few strands of my hair behind my ear. “You had stray hairs sticking up. You don’t want to look too disheveled when you’re trying to get a job.”

“Oh… thank you,” I said, relieved that that’s all it was.

“You’re welcome,” Rina said, just before returning to her desk.

I hurried over to the elevator and pressed the 88 button immediately. The good thing is that the work day is almost over, so almost no one is using this elevator. That left me enough privacy to stick the small sensor onto a crevice in the corner. It was a device that would enable Ray to directly control its mechanical functions separately from the rest of the building.

After a few minutes, I finally reached floor 88, the top floor of this building. The hallways over here were almost barren. With the papers pressed to my chest, I started to walk down the hall, and stopped in the lounge. In here were a few lobby-like gray chairs, small white coffee tables, and two flat screen tv’s on either side of the room. Beyond the chairs, large glass windows surrounded the entire back wall. You could see most of Battery City, all lighting up for the nightfall. Even SCARECROW down there. Any minute now, SCARECROW is _really_ going to light up…

At that moment, I heard a door open and saw some people come out of a room.

“…Let’s say we discuss this over the next poker tournament at my house, shall we?” said the voice of an older man.

A woman giggled. “Still persistent, aren’t we? Well, so am I. I look forward to seeing what you plan to bet and lose.”

The older man and several more men laughed. “You’re a real firecracker, Fumiko!”

“…It’s Director, Hopkins…” the woman said in a more sinister voice. “Do I need to remind you of the respect you are obliged to show me?”

“N-no… I… I just thought–”

“Perhaps in the future you won’t rely on your thinking anymore. It’s not as if you need that brain of yours for much,” she sneered. “Well, it was a lovely meeting. Now… who wants to be a doll and get me my briefcase?”

She went from dark to light so quickly, it gave me chills. This is the Director. The one that Frank couldn’t beat on his own…

Three of the old white men rushed back into the room to fetch her briefcase, while she sauntered over to the lounge and sat down on a chair, crossing one leg over her knee. She hadn’t seemed to notice me standing here at the opposite corner. She was quiet now, looking up with a serious expression at the television, which was playing the 6 o'clock news. I was scared to make a move away from or toward her. It was like being around a rattle snake. You never knew which way they were going to strike.

Before I could make a decision to do anything, the lights and the tv screen turned off. It was pitch black in here, except for the bright city lights penetrating the window. Then a few seconds later, the TV turned on again. But this time it was a video recording of a lobby. BL/ind headquarters lobby. And up on the screen were none other than Fun Ghoul and Kobra Kid in their Killjoy get-ups, waving up at the screen while the receptionist’s desk was left empty.

The Director made a kind of grunt as if someone had just punched her in the stomach.

“What’s up, Director?” I heard Frank’s voice come from the walls–or more likely, the speakers.

“You might want to look outside your window right about now,” Frank’s voice playfully warned.

Just as the Director turned around, a blast of orange and a thundering sound pervaded my senses. It was the bombs going off at SCARECROW. The Director sprang up to her feet and looked horrified–and enraged. She turned back to the TV.

“Hello, Ladies and Gentlemen! This is Fun Ghoul!”

“And Kobra Kid!” I heard Mikey cheerfully announce while on screen he smiled.

“A.K.A. 50% of the Fabulous Killjoys!” Frank continued. “Yeah, we came back from the dead just to tell you all a message: get out of this building or you all die. Oh, and we disabled the elevators, so good luck walking down all those stairs!” Frank made a salute to the camera and then the TV blacked out.

At that moment, several office workers ran through the hall and sprang for the elevator. “Wait! Don’t run, you idiots!” the Director yelled.

“Oh yeah,” Frank’s voice continued, even though the TV was out, “If you want to kill me for good this time, Director, you better come down here yourself. I’ll be waiting.”

The Director went storming back into the room that she just left. Shit, I gotta keep an eye on her.

I quickly followed and peeked into the room from the hallway. The Director had been waiting by a wall, and then impatiently pressed what looked like a button. She stared at it and grunted in frustration. It must be her SCARECROW summoning button. She then reached into her pocket and took out a radio receiver. All she got was static.

“What the hell?” she growled out. She moved over to a cupboard and started to get something out. Then she quickly came back out of the room with a shining, unsheathed sword in her hand.

“Leya!” I heard Ray finally speak into my ear. “I’ve got the elevator working. You know what to do!”

I couldn’t speak back to Ray, but I did know what to do. I had to corral the pig that was the Director into the elevator and trap her there.

I went rushing up the hallway myself until I reached the elevator.

“Director!” I called out, feeling my voice shake. “This elevator’s working!” I said as I pushed the button that lit up.

She was about to barge into the stairwell, but turned to face me. She didn’t look any happier for it.

“It seems that they were just bluffing,” I told the Director.

She eyed me with a condescending stare. “Good work on figuring that out. That imbecile is always bluffing, isn’t he?”

“Director…” I started.

“Never mind!” she snapped at me. As the bell rang and the doors opened, the Director didn’t even hesitate to go in before me. I quickly stepped inside and pressed the closing door button, then stepped back outside.

“What–” the Director started with a glare at me.

I smirked. “You’re not going anywhere.”

Just as the Director lunged toward me, the doors closed in her face. All I could hear was loud banging and muffled yelling after that.

I took the ray gun out from the back of my pants and aimed it at the elevator doors, backing up fifteen feet away.

Now all I have to do is wait for Frank and Mikey to get up here, so Frank can have his battle royale with the Director.

CLANG!

CLANG!

CLANG!

The banging on the elevator doors was getting louder. Jesus Christ…was this woman some kind of beast?

Again, there was a loud BANG and then I heard something slice against metal.

“Arrrrrgh!” It was the Director yelling as she stuck her sword through the middle of the elevator doors and started to push them aside with her hands.

“Oh shit,” I whispered out to myself as I raised up my gun and got ready to shoot.

I have to keep her trapped… This is my one task… my one task!

I shot out at the elevator, and missed, just ricocheting off the doors.

“Hahahaha! You… thought.. you could… trick me!” the Director said as she grunted her way through opening the elevator doors.

I shot out again, missing her head by several inches. Fuck, I need to stop being nervous!

“Who are you, anyway?” the Director asked as she hopped out of the elevator, looking a little tired.

I swallowed as I took another shot at her, focusing this time. But the Director merely swung her sword in front of her so quickly that she deflected the laser onto the wall.

I felt my jaw drop in shock.

“You picked the wrong game to play, silly little girl…” The Director taunted as she kept walking toward me.

This time I aimed above the Director at the large fluorescent light above her, sending shards of glass falling down all around her.

“Ugh!” she cried out as she tried to shake off all the glass.

I took this time to move out of the hallway and into the next open room. I held my gun in between my knees as I took off my blazer, which was constricting my arm movements, and rolled up the sleeves of the white blouse. When the hell were Frank and Mikey going to get here? I don’t know if I can take her on by myself. Now I know why Frank had such a hard time…

I peeked my head around the corner and saw the Director, still dusting herself of the glass shards.

“You know, it finally came to me,” she calmly started. “I know who you are. You’re the first elite SCARECROW Academy student to defer, Leya Novena. The girl who got away from Korse in Zone 18 after I ordered him to find you. And then you were supposed to have died while facing him again at Sweetwater Gulch. How does it feel to know that your sacrificial efforts went in vain?”

“Well, considering that we hacked Korse to pieces about twenty minutes ago, I’m feeling pretty good!” I called out from my corner.

The Director haughtily laughed. “That’s cute, you’re trying to sound tough.”

“You don’t believe me?” I asked. “It was Kobra Kid who did it. In SCARECROW. You know, where those bombs just went off. My guess is Korse’s remains are burning with the rest of the building.”

The Director was silent for a few seconds. The air felt tense.

I peeked my head around and saw that she was only a few feet down the hallway. She spotted me and ran forward, swinging her sword. I ducked and then tumbled forward and began to run back toward the elevator. I looked back and put my right hand above my left shoulder to shoot at the Director. She deflected the shots that got close to hitting her.

“This is getting really annoying!” she screamed out.

I had just about got to the elevator when I noticed she had stopped. I looked back again to see her stick her hand inside her jacket. She pulled out a white ray gun.

“Sorry, Leya. But you’re not coming back from the dead this time,” she told me just before she pulled the trigger.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is special because it is narrated by Frank, as we get to his epic rematch with the Director. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, go read When The Sun Goes Black!) Also, just fair warning: this chapter gets pretty violent and bloody…

Mikey and I had just finished televising our comeback to Better Living Industries when a throng of BLI employees came running out onto the first floor and then out of the building. We’re now standing back behind Rina’s abandoned desk, just watching everyone stumble all over each other.

“Let’s go up and meet Leya already!” Mikey yells to me over the din of the panicking employees.

“She’ll be fine,” I say to appease Mikey. “We got to wait for this place to clear out so we can lock the doors. Leya knows what she has to do… and I trust her to get it done.”

Mikey gives me a hard stare. “I don’t know… I just have a bad feeling about this.”

I sigh. A part of me is really worried about Leya, too, but I warned her that if anything went wrong, she is to run away or hide. Of course, she’s never really been one to listen to orders too well…

“Frank,” Mikey tells me through his teeth. “Let’s go. Now.”

“Mmm… alright!” I answer as I reach into my vest pocket and press the button on my radio communicator. “Ray, get that other elevator working–we’re going up!”

Mikey and I run to the elevator doors–which opened only five seconds after I contacted Ray. Some BLI employees take notice of us, but no one does a thing to stop us.

The doors close in on us and now all we have to do is wait a few minutes until we get up to the director. My heart’s thumping loudly against my chest. I reach behind my back and unsheathe my katana.

No mercy this time. No hesitation. I’m not stopping until I kill the Director…

Getting up to the 88th floor is taking a bit longer than I remembered and Mikey has been pacing back and forth like a shark in this small elevator.

“Would you stop that?” I ask him. “It’s driving me nuts.”

He looks over at me and scoffs. “Stop trying to act so cool about everything. This is an extremely risky and dangerous thing we’re doing right now. You faced the Director before and lost–and now we’re counting on Leya to corner her? By herself? I mean, yeah, we’re a bit stealthier this time, but it’s still the Director–And Ray’s in the basement–if me and you fail–”

“We’re not going to fail!” I quickly interrupt as we pass the 79th floor. “Now get ready. And whatever happens… if something happens to me… make sure the Director doesn’t get out of here alive.”

Mikey gulps and nods.

86 passes. 87 passes. 88.

The elevator stops and we hear its engines whirr down. I’m the first one to get out–oh shit.

The Director is about ten feet away from the elevators, directly facing the elevator to my right, and she has her white ray gun raised high, her katana in her left hand. I bolt out of the elevator and see Leya crouched on the floor in front of the other elevator. She doesn’t have her blazer on anymore and is down on one knee with her ray gun aimed at the Director.

The Director glances at me momentarily and gasps. Then she averts her gaze back to Leya and pulls the trigger.

“No!” I yell as I spring and swing my katana in the path of her laser. The laser gets deflected. I got here in time, thank fucking god…

“How did you do that?” the Director hisses at me as she holds her gun in front of her.

I stand in front of Leya, who still hasn’t got up from the floor, although she’s breathing hard.

“I had a good teacher,” I answer the Director.

She condescendingly smirks, and then laughs. “A teacher? And where might this teacher be?”

I keep a hard gaze on her. “No. No chit chat. Let’s get this over with properly. Me, you, katanas. To the death.”

“You’re very confident for someone who narrowly escaped death the last time we met,” the Director tauntingly tells me.

“I could say the same thing about you,” I reply with a raise of my eyebrows.

The Director curled her red lips at me in disdain. “Please! You–almost kill me? That’s laughable.”

“Well get ready to laugh yourself to the grave,” I joke with a wiggle of my eyebrows.

“Speaking of dead things–Leya, you’re not getting off the hook!” the Director growls as she points her ray gun to my left, where Leya had stood up and was trying to walk away.

“Back off bitch!” I shout as I slice my katana again to catch the laser and send it into the ceiling. “You’re done messing with the people I care about.”

I stand in front of Leya again, who looks scared, with her brown eyes widened and her bangs damp from sweat. I’m sorry I ever left her alone with this evil bitch…

“Aww, are you hurt, Frank?” the Director says in a revolting baby voice. “Because I stole your best friend away from you? Still couldn’t find him, could you?”

I feel the anger boil up in me, but let it subside. I turn to Leya, who had been smart enough to dart over to Mikey’s side, just next to the elevator.

“Leya, you’re not hurt, are you?” I ask, looking for any signs of blood on her outfit.

She quickly shakes her head and gives me a small smile. “No, I’m fine!”

The Director lets out a melodramatic sigh. “Of course she is. Ugh, why won’t either of you just die? First you come back from the dead and now little miss traitor here, too? You’re both determined to ruin my life, aren’t you?”

“Us ruin your life?!” Leya snaps as she points her purple and white ray gun at the Director. “Like you ruined mine? Like you ruined all my friends’ lives? Like you killed people I cared about?”

The Director shoots an evil stare at Leya. “Let’s get one thing straight here. No one ever forced those friends of yours to die so you lived. Don’t you think you should really be taking responsibility for that instead of putting the blame on others?”

Leya’s face grew red and she shot her ray gun twice at the Director, who flicked off the lasers with her katana and sent them just flying past Leya’s arm and head.

“Don’t listen to her! She’s just trying to get a rise out of you!” Mikey warns as he lunges forward and holds Leya back by her arms toward the corner of the hallway.

The Director suddenly looks over at Mikey, taking notice of him for the first time since we showed up. “Kobra Kid… how good it is to see you. Interesting hair change, although I must say I was partial to the blonde. How are you?”

“Go to hell, bitch,” Mikey venomously spits out.

She opens her mouth in a mocking expression of pain. “I am appalled. I spared you your life, and this is how you thank me?”

“Spared my life?” Mikey scoffs. “Spared it? After I was almost killed?”

“Well, I suppose killing you would have been merciful, then?” the Director asks with a chuckle. “After you just witnessed your older brother die, of course.”

Mikey glares at her and I can see him clench his fists.

“Cut the cryptic talk, you nasty hag,” I spit out to the Director as I walk closer to her. “And let’s get down to business.”

She stares at me with her dark eyes for several seconds before she finally blinks and smiles. “You want to play with katanas, Frank? Then we’ll play…” She lowers her white ray gun and puts it back in her jacket.

I flex the muscles in my arms and my legs as I raise up my katana. No bowing to this cold-hearted bitch.

The Director raises up her katana, and narrows her eyes. “Oh, I forgot to tell you–I’m not alone.”

I crease my eyebrows, waiting for clarification.

“Unh!”

“Mikey!”

I dart my eyes over to the left to see Mikey thrown to the floor down the hall by some guy in black while Leya runs toward them.

“Don’t take your eyes off the enemy!” the Director screeches as she comes right up and swings her sword forward.

I grunt out as I block her swing with my blade. I’ll have to trust that Mikey and Leya can handle that guy in black…

I channel my strength and parry away the Director’s sword with one stroke. “Let me guess,” I gasp out. “That’s the same asshole who kidnapped me and roofied me until he dropped my ass off in the Borderlands…”

The Director smirks, her face eerily lit up by the bright blue and white lights that shone through the glass of this building. “Correct. He’s my new general. And he’s ruthless–will stop at nothing until he kills his target.”

“Oh really?” I ask as I run forward and send a strike out at the Director’s abdomen.

“Really,” she answers as she blocks and pushes her katana up against mine.

“Then… why…” I strike out again at her, “…did he not kill me?”

“You weren’t the target at the time,” the Director says as she swings and cuts a bit of my left bicep.

“Grr!” I let out as it stings.

I swing out my blade and get her back in her left arm. She rushes backward and holds a hand to her arm, as if she can’t believe it’s bleeding. She quickly looks back up to see me rush her again.

I swing my sword down onto her–she parries–then she strikes out, and barely misses my stomach.

I flip the blade in my hand and stick it up toward her neck. She raises her blade just in time to stop mine–so I retreat and throw the blade down, onto the inside of her left elbow.

“Ahhh!” she screams out in pain as she swings her sword out at me, slicing a bit of my forehead.

“Grr…” I wince out in pain.

The Director then turns and runs down the hallway. I follow while I try to wipe the blood out of my eyes.

“Don’t run away, Fuu!” I holler. “I thought you were the best! Good enough to kill your master!”

“What do you even presume to know about me or my past?!” she shouts as she sprints and strikes out at me.

“I know I saw a look of terror in your eyes once you saw the hilt of this blade!” I kick and strike out at her at the same time. I missed her with my blade, but she lost her balance and stumbled backward.

She sends me a venomous stare. “Where did you get that katana?”

I brandish my katana up in front of me. “I got this little beauty from the woman whose life you ruined after killing her husband. Do the names Henry and Masaki Ninomiya mean anything to you?”

“Liar!” the Director shouts up at me.

“No, Fuu,” I sneer. “That is your name, isn’t it? That’s what Masaki always referred to you as.”

“You _dare_ to use that name when you speak to me!” she shouts out as she lunges at me.

I raise up my sword, this time feeling the struggle as she puts so much weight and force into her blade.

“No matter what you think you know… That old man died of a stroke because he was old! He was a fool to fight me! He should have just surrendered right then! Then he wouldn’t have borne the poor fortune of having a desert rat like you wield one of his finest blades!”

I muster up my strength and push against her as I yell with rage. Then I slice upward at her, one, two, three times–cutting her face, her right bicep and her shoulder. I don’t let up, even when she sticks her blade straight out and stabs me in the flabby part of my left hip. I merely grab at her blade and take my chance to slice across her chest.

“Unhh!” she gasps as she falls back, a diagonal line of crimson appearing above her gray blazer and the white shirt from the top of her breast to her ribs.

She pulls her sword back and rips my glove and my hand in the process. Somehow, even though I’d been cut and stabbed a few times, I’m not feeling any of it. And for the first time, I see something genuine in the Director’s dark eyes. Fear. Fear for her life.

She steps back a few feet. “That wasn’t enough to kill me. But do you really have it in you, to cut me down and take my life? Is that what you Fabulous Killjoys preach about? Killing people who just help this forsaken world?”

I spit at her, “Spare me that bullshit guilt trip, bitch. You’re just afraid of dying. So tell me, how does it feel, after being responsible for the deaths of hundreds, thousands of innocent people?”

She glowers at me, then lunges and strikes her blade forward.

This time, I jump back to block her strikes. She gets very aggressive and throws strike after strike, up, down, sideways, diagonally–it’s making me run out of breath as I try to parry every blow. She won’t stop.

When I get a split second’s opportunity, I turn to run, and she slices the back of my right arm, making my wrist guard slip off. I’m starting to feel my wounds, and the bleeding is starting to irritate me, particularly above my eye and my hip.

“Get back here, you coward! Come face your death!” the Director shouts as she runs after me.

I run into a random open office and wait just inside the door. This can’t possibly work as well as I think it might, but right now, I’m running out of options.

Three seconds later, the Director runs into the room and I kick out at her back, sending her falling onto the ground. Shit, that was easy!

I move over and kick her sword out of her hand. She turns her face up and kicks her legs out at me, hitting me in the left shin.

I groan out as I limp in pain over her body to kick the sword even farther away. She reaches up and claws onto my legs, digging her nails in.

This is it.

She’s vulnerable. On the ground. No katana in her hand. This is my chance.

Yet as I look down at her animalistic face contorting into what can only be described as desperation–the desperation of a wounded animal that knows it’s cornered, whose last defense is a vicious, albeit futile, attack on the predator–

I feel pity for her.

I kick away my legs from her grip and walk back down the pathway, crouching down quickly to pick up her sword with my left hand.

“What the hell are you doing?!” she shrieks out as she gets up on her hands and knees.

“I’m not killing you like this,” I tell her with a shake of my head.

“Like what? Don’t be so arrogant, you–”

“Shut up!” I snapped out. “You look so pathetic right now that killing you would almost be a mercy.”

“How dare you talk to me like that, you infernal–” she stopped shouting once I had her own sword bared against her throat.

“Look at yourself,” I spit out. “You’re cornered. Finished. You lost.”

“No…” she mutters out. “I haven’t lost. As long as I’m alive, I’ve won… And if you think you’re getting out of here alive–”

“What? You’re going to kill me?” I ask with a chuckle. I look down then. “Masaki told me that you were ruthless, that you showed no mercy for anything. And I believed her, because hey, I know it firsthand. But Masaki also told me about you as a girl–that you were very gifted and that when you grew up, she was very proud of you. You accomplished so much.”

“Where are you going with this crap?” the Director sneers at me.

“You were once human, Fuu. You were just like everybody else–slightly more gifted in the use of samurai swords and brain power, but you were just a little girl once. And it’s a stubborn little girl that’s looking at me right now.

"So your parents forced you to make school the focus of your life so that you didn’t have an actual life… So you were better than everyone… Whoop-de-fucking-doo. You were so deprived of a life that now you want to deprive everyone else of it, too? Well, get the fuck over it already!”

The Director fumes as she sends me a livid gaze. “This isn’t a game. The city needs me to function. Without me, there will be chaos. I brought order to a chaotic world! I became adored by millions of people!”

“I see…” I respond with a nod of my head. “So eager for approval that you decided to take control of the world and show it to your parents as another trophy? So perfectly bland and lifeless, just like you were as a teenager?”

The Director still gave me that dark stare of hers.

“Great, silent treatment,” I say with a raise of my eyebrows. “You know, your inner troubled teenager is showing, Fuu!”

“Shut up! Shut up about everything! You speak of things that you don’t know!”

“I know that Henry never blamed you,” I tell her seriously. “He never blamed you for his death.”

The Director’s eyes widen and I think I can see a tear forming.

“Masaki sure as fuck blames you, but Henry never did. I think he understood you in ways that no one else could or ever will,” I continue.

“He doesn’t blame me?” she softly questions into the air.

“No. And I don’t think he’d be too fond of me running his sword through you, so why don’t we both quit trying to kill each other? Once and for all…”

The Director starts to sniff as tears start to stream out of her eyes. She bends down and grabs at herself, sobbing to the ground. I blink, not really sure what to do now, so I lower the blade from her throat.

I never thought I’d ever see this woman cry.

“You…” she sniffed, “You’re right. And… you… are… an idiot!”

She pulls out her ray gun from her jacket in a fraction of a second, and shoots out at me. Thank god for my awesome reflexes, which allow me to dodge the laser with my sword.

“Ha,” she sinisterly laughs. “Did you think you were going to get me to give up? That I was going to make a truce with you? Don’t insult me!” She shoots out another laser that I barely block from hitting my crotch.

“You’re not very honorable anymore, are you?” I ask with a twitch of my eyebrows.

“Honor is a word that the weak use when they lack the fortitude to take advantage of their resources in a fight,” the Director quips back at me just before she sends another shot at me.

I roll onto the ground and start to run in between the cubicles, with two swords still in my hands. The Director comes after me, shooting and shooting, laughing in delight as she does so.

“Who needs honor when you have a gun?” she taunts out. “I take it back–I’ll have as much pleasure sending a laser through your skull as I would running my blade into your heart.”

“Then come get me, bitch!” I call out as I hide behind a cubicle’s desk.

She proceeds to shoot near me, but no matter how many times she shoots, she’ll never reach me down here. So I hear her heels stamp through the aisles between the cubicles, getting closer and closer to me.

I get my feet ready on a swivel chair, and wait for her to come around as I hold hers and Henry’s swords in my two hands.

I close my eyes and pay attention to every single sound, like Masaki taught me how. Isolate the senses, create a space that I control…

As soon as I hear the steps come closer and closer, I can tell that the Director is only six paces away. Three, two, one–I kick the chair out with my feet and get up on my knees. The Director shoots out at the chair in reflex. Then I spring up to a stand and dart across the way to the next cubicle.

“You can’t hide!” She runs up to the cubicle, ready to shoot–so I throw the Director’s sword literally back at her chest, hilt-first, and she stumbles backwards, trying to catch it. That’s when I have my chance.

I reach under the center of the metal desk in here and heave it upward so it topples into the hallway. Right onto the Director.

“Ahh!” She was busy catching her sword to realize what I’d done until it was too late, and when she tried to run, she stumbled into the rolling swivel chair, turned back–and BAM! The desk made the loudest sound as it trapped her between it and the floor, pinning her from the pelvis down.

She’s weakly breathing out in gasps, her ray gun still in hand, curved up to shoot at me.

I skip forward and hoist myself on top of the desk, kicking the gun out of her hand in the same motion.

She groans out in pain.I stare down at her. She truly is helpless this time. She’s still bleeding from her chest and the cuts I gave her on her arms, and I’m sure that something broke or got crushed when that desk fell on her.

“So what are you going to do now?” she growls up at me.

I smirk. “Well, I think I’m over not killing you, so–” I plunge my sword downward and stab it into her abdomen.

She screams out in pain and clenches her fists. When she calms down, she starts to laugh.

I narrow my eyes. “What’s so fucking funny?”

“Why didn’t you stab me in the heart? Coward…” she taunts.

I softly chuckle, amused that she was able to still be the arrogant bitch she was, even when she’s dying.

“I didn’t want it to be that easy,” I explain. “Besides, I have something I’d like to ask you, now that you’re just lying here.” I give her a raise of my eyebrows.

“I’m not telling you anything,” she spits up at me.

I glare, take my sword out of her stomach, and then plunge again, just a couple inches left of where I previously stabbed her.

She’s trying hard not to let out any screams of pain, but makes these gargling, groaning noises.

“Tell me where Gerard is,” I tell her with a hard gaze.

She looks up and giggles, the red mouth of hers now stained with the red of her blood, too.

“Tell me where he is!” I shout this time.

“Oh… the blood loss… I think it’s making my memory a little fuzzy,” she tauntingly replies.

I bring my knees up so I can stand up on the desk and jump up and down three times, almost falling off because it wobbles.

“Gah!–Stop that!” she screams out. I oblige and sit back down on the desk.

“I’ll tell you…” she breathes out. Then she starts laughing again. “But if you think you’ve won… just because you killed me… you’ve got it all wrong.”

“Tell me where Gerard is,” I demand through my teeth.

She breathes out in laughs and doesn’t speak.

“Tell me where he is!” I shout.

“You see…” she starts with a laugh, “He hasn’t been far from you all this time… And the funniest part is,” she wheezes out a laugh again, “he’s about to kill his little brother right now…”

“What?” I question, thinking how crazy this all sounds.

“Don’t hurt yourself too much thinking about it,” the Director says with another giggle.

My eyes widen as I finally realize what she means.

Oh, fuck…

_Oh fuck!_

“Yes, now you finally realize,” the Director teases from the ground.

I don’t even take the time to bother answering her. I quickly take my sword out of her stomach and hop off the desk to start running back through the sea of cubicles.

My heart’s pounding against my chest–I have to get back in time! To make sure that no one fucking dies before I get there!


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back to Leya's POV

Frank had started approaching the Director with his sword raised up in front of him and a bright look in his eyes.

“Cut the cryptic talk, you nasty hag, and let’s get down to business,” he told her.

She silently eyed him in response and smiled. “You want to play with katanas, Frank? Then we’ll play…” She lowered her white ray gun and put it back in her jacket.

Mikey still had a hand on my shoulder, keeping me pinned against the wall–not that it was necessary. I’m not about to get in the middle of the Director and Frank’s blades. Although, I _am_ worried for Frank…

Mikey and I could do nothing but watch, however, because this was Frank’s fight. His unfinished business.

Frank continued to walk forward and the Director raised up her sword. But then she narrowed her eyes. “Oh, I forgot to tell you–I’m not alone.”

Before Mikey and I could make sense of this, we heard footsteps come up from behind us. I whipped my head around just in time to see Mikey get sucker-punched in the face by someone dressed in black. Then the same guy grabbed Mikey and threw him down the hallway. Literally threw him, as in he went flying in the air.

“Unh!” Mikey let out as he hit the ground with his face.

“Mikey!” I called out as I unfroze and started after the agent in black. I shot out my ray gun, but of course this guy was wearing armor just like the elite SCARECROW students in the Borderlands, so it was deflected.He paid no attention to me and continued to attack Mikey, who had just stood up.Mikey groaned out as he got an uppercut to his chin, but this time he retaliated and punched the agent back. Then the two went back and forth, punching, blocking, moving farther down the hallway.

The black agent’s wearing a helmet, so there’s little that Mikey can do, although he punched and kicked at it in vain. The agent caught Mikey’s arm and swung a left hook into his face, cutting his eyebrow open.

“No,” I gasped as I got closer, waiting for an opening to shoot at the agent.

Mikey was throwing out his best kicks, swings, and blocks, but this guy was relentless; he seemed to block everything Mikey threw at him, and each hit he landed on Mikey seemed to do more damage.

I had to do something.

I ran up forward, but the agent must have heard me, because right after he sent a strong kick into Mikey’s chest and knocked him backward, he reached into one of his pant straps and shot out a laser from a black ray gun–hitting the wall just two inches away from my eyes.

As I shuddered in shock, the agent returned to a fallen over Mikey and lunged down on him. Mikey put his hands up and attempted to push him off, but the agent simply ignored this and sent a fist into Mikey’s face again. And again. And again.

I’d never seen Mikey at the losing end of a fight. I’d never seen him get beaten so badly like this. It was terrifying. I clenched my fists and ran forward again–a little scared of what might happen to me–but I had to help Mikey!

Right now, the agent was really starting to whale on him, so both of his hands were occupied. I aimed my gun, took a deep breath and shot forward, hitting the visor of his helmet with a laser and cracking it. The agent turned to me and waved off Mikey’s clawing arms. Mikey had blood dripping from his nose, mouth, and eyebrows.

The agent finally stood up, but slammed a foot into Mikey’s stomach.

“Urgh!” Mikey screamed in pain.

The agent ignored him and whipped out his gun to shoot at me. He pulled the trigger and I dove to the ground, dodging the shot by only a few inches again.

“No…” Mikey said as he shot up at the black agent. The agent had just jumped off in time to escape getting hit from a laser.

Mikey struggled, but he mustered up enough strength to stand up again, facing his enemy with his gun raised. The black agent, apparently not seeing this as a threat, walked forward toward Mikey.

Mikey’s eyes widened and he started to shoot at the agent, but the shots simply bounced off his armor.

“Mikey, shoot for the other parts of his body!” I yelled over at him.

The agent slightly turned his head toward me and shot out. I ducked again, and just missed getting hit again. Sooner or later, statistically, my luck is going to run out.

It seemed that the agent ran out of luck, too, because his split second distraction allowed Mikey to sprint up several paces and jump into a drop kick that landed smack in the middle of the black agent’s chest. They both dropped to the floor, then raced to get back up on their feet.

Mikey ran forward and started to club the guy’s helmet with his ray gun, which started to crack even more. Just a little bit more… and then he’d be vulnerable.

But the agent wouldn’t go down easy. He raised his gun and shot out, barely shooting past Mikey’s head–then Mikey grabbed his hand and wrenched the gun out of it–but the agent took the chance to thrust his knee into Mikey’s stomach.

Mikey dropped his gun, too, and the two went back to hand-to-hand combat. Mikey blocked the punches again, but he was getting cornered near the glass window of the hallway.

I have to do something or else this will never end… Or if it does end, it will end horribly!

While Mikey finally sent out a few successful hits, I slyly darted just behind the black agent. He struck out at Mikey and hit him in the temple, but let himself dip lower. This was my chance.

I jumped up onto the agent’s back and reached my hands around this guy’s helmet and neck while I wrapped my legs around his torso.

The agent growled from inside his helmet and brought his hands up to my arms and legs, trying to wrench them off. I pulled and pulled at his helmet, but the agent got smart and rushed backward into the nearest window, smashing the back of my head into the glass. But I was still determined to hold onto him, no matter what.

Mikey had bent down to the floor to pick up his ray gun, waiting for a clear shot to open up on the agent.

The black agent still struggled, but I could feel his helmet loosen. To try and force it to break instead, I took one hand off of his neck and started to smash at the visor with the base of my palm.

“Get off!” a deep voice inside roared as he grabbed my other hand and twisted it.

“Ah!” I reluctantly let out as I tried to flex my way out of his hold. With a forceful movement, he was somehow able to wrench me off of him and I hit the floor, landing hard on my ass. He towered over me with a menacing clench of his fists at his sides.

I quickly shuffled backward and stood up, barely seeing Mikey behind him, who then shot at the back of his helmet.

*PLINK*

The helmet had started to shatter and black pieces rained down from the agent’s head. Before Mikey and I could make another move, the agent rolled down and picked up his fallen ray gun.

Mikey quickly moved around in a circle and shot repeatedly at the agent’s head–although the agent ducked and ran.

“What the hell?” I asked aloud as I saw the agent run. Mikey creased his eyebrows and ran after him. I also followed, until the agent reached a dead end in the corner.

“Got you!” Mikey said as he shot another laser.

The black agent raised up his arms in front of his face and his wrist guards blocked the laser. Then he did something really curious–he raised his hands up above his head and kept them frozen like that.

“Huh?” I questioned as I glanced at Mikey, who glanced back at me with the same amount of confusion in his eyes.

“He’s surrendering…” Mikey quietly announced with a bend of his eyebrows.

The agent then put his gun back into the slot on the side of his thigh, and moved his hands up to his helmet. He twisted it, causing more fragments of black to rain down. Then he pulled up and revealed his face.

Mikey and I collectively gasped.

NO.

NO.

JUST FUCKING NO.

It was–

It was Gerard.

Or his black-haired twin–but I doubt he has an identical twin.

It was his face, angular, pointed nose, greenish hazel eyes, thick angular eyebrows, defined jaw, and framing it was clean black hair, instead of the vibrant, stringy red I knew him for.

Mikey looked over at him with an ashy, pale face. His eyes widened so much that you’d think they could just roll out of their sockets.

The agent–or I suppose, Gerard–sighed and threw his helmet down to the floor.

“Surprise,” was all he said.

I couldn’t think of anything to say. My throat felt choked, my lungs felt paralyzed. This guy we were trying so hard to kill was Gerard! And… And I had a feeling that he was working for BL/ind… but never like this! Not directly…

Mikey came up with words first. “Is it… you?”

Gerard blinked at him and didn’t answer.

“Is it you?” Mikey asked again, lowering his gun and looking heavy-hearted, tears welling up in his eyes.

Gerard let himself smile with a closed mouth. “It’s me, Mikey.”

I looked over at Mikey and saw him shake, his lower, bleeding lip trembling. A mix of relief and horror showed on his face, horror definitely taking up most of it.

“But…why?” Mikey feebly started, his voice cracking.

Gerard briefly closed his eyes, then opened them. “I don’t have time to explain.” He was still smiling at Mikey. “Why don’t you come give your older bro a hug? I haven’t seen you in months! I missed you.”

Mikey stood frozen in place, the same look of horror on his face, now mixing with a bit of indignation as he creased his eyebrows together. “You–you fought me…”

“Look, forget about that–just… Come on! Don’t you know how long I’ve been waiting to see you again?” Gerard asked with a tense of his eyebrows as he extended his arms, waiting for Mikey to come to him.

“Mikey, don’t!” I hushed out. Something wasn’t right about this. “He just beat the shit out of you. He… He’s not your brother right now.”

Mikey glanced at me with that same look of fear in his eyes.

Gerard scoffed as he looked at me. “Wow, Leya, nice to see you, too!” Then he turned back to Mikey. “Well, you gonna give me a hug or not?”

Mikey looked between me and Gerard with a gulp. He still didn’t move.

Gerard arched an eyebrow and looked down. “Alright. I see how it is…” He turned around and crossed his arms. “I know how it looks. I beat you up, so you’re a little mad. I’ll explain everything later, though. You’ll see why I had to do this.”

“What are you talking about?” Mikey asked.

“I’m talking about being the new General of Battery City, Mikey,” Gerard answered. “And you know what that means? It means I have to protect the peace of the city from people who threaten it. People like you, unfortunately.”

Gerard turned back around to face Mikey and now had a gun in his hand.

“Mikey, move!” I hollered as soon as I saw Gerard’s eyes narrow. I had started sprinting the few steps I needed to reach Mikey before I even spoke, because he didn’t budge a bit. I lunged and grabbed at his shoulders to push him down and out of the way–

*PEW*

“Urgh!” I groaned as I felt something burn just above my right shoulder blade.

At the same time I got hit, I had crashed with Mikey onto the ground. Now I’m lying on top of him with all my weight, feeling just searing pain in my back where I got shot. As I weakly lifted up my head from Mikey’s chest, I saw him stare into my eyes with horror.

“Leya!” he gasped as he moved his eyes and looked past me, darting his eyes back up to Gerard. I looked back with a struggle, too, as I shuddered with pain.

Gerard sighed with an annoyed huff. “You know, Leya, you really do get in the way all the time…”

I tried to get up by using my hands as support on the carpet, but my back hurt too much to keep myself up as I dipped back toward Mikey. He sprang up and carefully moved me so now I was sitting on the ground next to him, facing Gerard.

Mikey moved into a kneeling position and placed a defensive arm in front of me. “Gerard… how could you… how could you do this?!”

“Don’t get so angry, Mikey. I wasn’t aiming for Leya, I was aiming for you,” Gerard said with a nonchalantly irritable air.

Mikey shot an even angrier glare at Gerard. “Just–What the hell is going on with you?!”

“He’s under control of the Director!” It was Frank who spoke as he ran into the same space as us. He had blood trailing from his forehead down the left side of his face and he looked really sweaty. I looked over at his limbs and saw that his arms were also trailing in blood down to his wrists, as well as the side of his stomach. Did he win the fight with the Director?

He continued to move forward toward Gerard with his sword bared–looking blood-stained, now that I paid attention.

“You don’t want to do that, Frank…” Gerard warned as he pointed his gun at him.

“Oh, I really think I do!” Frank growled out as he ran up to Gerard.

Gerard’s face creased in anger and he shot out at Frank, who simply deflected the lasers and ran up all the way to Gerard. He grabbed Gerard’s shooting arm, pinned it to the window, and placed his blade just in front of Gerard’s throat.

“Hmm, not bad,” Gerard remarked with an amused lift of his eyebrows. “Well, well, almost the whole gang’s here. Where’s Ray? No doubt, making him do some high tech job while you guys have all the fun.”

Frank didn’t reply but continued to glare at him. Gerard looked between the three of us.

“Well, don’t look so surprised, guys. Surely you must have seen this coming?” There was the slightly slurred voice I recognized. Although he stared coldly at us, even while he smirked at one corner of his mouth.

Mikey continued to glare up at his older brother. “You’re working for the Director? That’s why you fucking fought against me? That’s why you tried to fucking kill me right now?!”

“I’m sorry, baby bro,” Gerard replied. “It was supposed to be the two of us together, you know. We would have been an unbeatable team. But now we’re not, thanks to Frankie here.”

I thought I could see Frank shudder as he gaped at Gerard, but he still held his sword bared at his throat.

I felt horrible. Because I _**had**_ seen this coming, I just hadn’t had the heart to tell Mikey or Frank.

“Gerard…” I started, “Don’t you remember what SCARECROW did to you? All the times they’ve hurt you and people you cared about? You have to remember–you know that we’re the good side right? And BL/ind is bad?”

Gerard laughed as he looked toward me. “I don’t have amnesia, Leya. I remember perfectly well the past relationship between me and BL/ind. But guys, I’ve had my eyes opened, and you just have to open your eyes, too. BL/ind isn’t the enemy. They were just trying to help us…”

“Shut the fuck up! Don’t you fucking start spitting out that brainwash bullshit to me,” Frank muttered as he glared over at Gerard. “Had your eyes open–yeah I’m sure you had your fucking eyes open when they gave you a fucking lobotomy.”

Gerard laughed. “Of course you wouldn’t understand, Frank. Always the rebel… By the way, how many attempts did it take before you even got here today? You’re even harder to kill than Leya!”

“Shut up!” It was Mikey who shouted. “What the fuck did they do to you? Why are you acting like this?”

“He’s fucking brainwashed!” Frank angrily spat out.

“Frank, move that sword away from my throat. Everyone here knows you’d never do anything to seriously hurt me,” Gerard told him in a patronizing tone.

“Wanna fucking bet?” Frank said as he slightly edged the katana into Gerard’s throat, drawing small drops of blood.

Gerard’s eyes widened and he grabbed Frank’s right arm with his left hand and then forced his way out of Frank’s grip with a push. Frank grunted as he hit the floor.

“So tough,” Gerard said with a laugh as he aimed his gun down at Frank. “But remember, I’m the one holding a gu–”

*PEW*

I had raised my gun with my left arm and shot the ray gun out of Gerard’s hand, leaving a bit of a mark on his now bloody fingers.

He darted his head in my direction and laughed. “That was a lucky shot, Leya. Next time won’t be so–”

*PEW*

I had shot again, and this time, I got Gerard on the right side of his chest, where there was no armor.

“Shit,” he breathed out as he hunched over in pain.

“That wasn’t luck, asshole,” I gritted through my teeth while I kept my ray gun aimed in my left hand with all my strength.

“You’re gonna kill me, Leya?” Gerard taunted. “Well, fire away. You’re going to cause Mikey and Frank here a lot of grief. Have fun adding that guilt to your already-massively burdened shoulders. Weren’t you always going on and on about how everyone around you died? I told you it wasn’t your fault, but now I’m thinking I was wrong about it.

"It is your fault that we even ‘died’ in the first place. If it weren’t for you, we would have rescued Grace a lot sooner, none of those people at Sweetwater would have died, Frank wouldn’t have got that scar on his face, Mikey here wouldn’t have amnesia, and I can’t imagine Ray’s had it easy, either, having to be the one to deal with it all. It’s all your fault, Leya. Because we were too busy protecting you to take care of ourselves. And the only damn reason you’re alive is because of us, anyway, so why don’t you–”

“Shut up!”

*PEW* *PEW*

I gasped in shock to see Gerard’s chest get hit by a couple more lasers, even though they were deflected by armor. I looked up to the side to see it was Mikey who had shouted and then done it.

“…Mikey…” Gerard gasped, and for the first time since we were here, he showed emotion in pain-filled eyes.

Frank stood up and swiftly stuck his sword under Gerard’s throat again. He looked over at him with a dark stare. “I don’t give a shit if you’re brainwashed or trying to murder us. I came here to save you and take you out of this city, so you’re fucking coming with us, whether you like it or not, dammit!”

Gerard twitched his eyebrows up and down and gave Frank a mischievous stare. “Oh, I’d love to see you try…”

In the next instant, he kicked up at Frank’s stomach and sent him falling backwards with the sword clattering onto the ground. Gerard wasted no more time and sprinted back down the hallway where Mikey and I just fought him.

“Get back here!” Mikey shouted as he quickly stood up and started to run after him.

I put a hand on the ground and tried to get up without making my laser wound hurt, feeling blood trickle down my back. Moving my right arm hurt the shoulder blade wound each time, but if I kept it limp at my side, I was fine. Frank had already stood back up at this time and met up with me. “Are you good? You’re–Oh no…”

He saw my back, which must have been drenched in blood by this time, because it felt very damp.

I smiled over at him quickly as we ran. “I’m okay! What’s more important is that we catch up to Gerard and Mikey!”

Frank quickly nodded with a serious, lingering look at me.

We sprinted back through the hallway, and heard sounds of commotion in the direction that Frank had fought the Director.

“He’s probably going back for the Director!” Frank gasped as he ran even faster now.

“The Director–is she dead?” I asked.

“Just about,” he quickly responded.

At that moment, I felt dizzy for a second and my vision started to turn spotty. It only stopped when I bumped into the wall and slumped against it.

“Damn it, Leya! You’re staying here!” Frank shouted as he went on running.

“I’ll be fine,” I gasped out, using the wall to push off at a run again.

“You’re bleeding! A lot! You’re fucking sitting down here until we get done!” Frank snapped as he pushed me back against the wall and forced me to sit down on the carpeted floor. He said no more and sprinted down the corridor, sharply turning left into a room with his sword bared.

Damn it, no… I didn’t want to be left out here while they fought. I used the wall as a support to help myself stand again. I tried to breathe through my mouth, hoping that would help the light-headedness fade away. Then I thought of the radio receiver in my pocket.

Oh my god, Ray. He doesn’t know.

I pressed down the button on the receiver. “Ray, it’s Leya! Shit is going down!”

*BEEP* “What do you mean?” he asked in a concerned tone.

“The Director’s not the problem anymore–It’s–” I hesitated.

“What?” Ray asked.

“It’s Gerard. He’s here. He’s working for BL/ind, just like I thought he might!” I didn’t realize it until I spoke, but I was crying.

Ray didn’t respond right away.

“What should we do?” he finally asked, in a calm voice.

“Mikey and Frank are after him right now–I don’t know what’s going on–I got shot–I’m not in the room, but–Ray, we need to get out of here. Start phase 5.”

“But–” he started.

“Frank and Mikey are too busy to give the order right now! Start phase 5. We’re leaving soon.”

“Okay. Meet you underground in ten,” Ray answered with a last beep.

I stuffed the receiver back into my pocket and quickly walked over to the room that Frank had just run into. It was full of cubicles and Gerard, Frank, and Mikey were all right next to the far wall, which was made entirely of glass. I quietly walked forward and noticed that one of the squares of glass had a large jagged hole in it, leaving an outline of what looked like pointy teeth around the hole. How it had shattered, I have no idea… but Frank and Gerard were wrestling on the ground just near there.

After a bit of struggle, Frank stood up and grabbed Gerard by the collar.

“Frank, stop it!” Mikey shouted. He had been standing back a few feet away, just watching.

“No!” Frank shouted as he punched Gerard and threw him down to the ground. Gerard groaned as Frank knelt down and grabbed at his collar again. “This motherfucker is coming home with us!” Punch. “I don’t care if I have to spend months reverse brainwashing him!” Punch. “I dedicated the last five months of my life trying to find this asshole–” Punch. “And now I found him!” Punch. “So I’m taking him home now!”

Gerard kicked up at Frank’s left hip, and Frank crumpled over and sank down to both of his knees now. Then Gerard stood up and swung a fist down onto his face, causing Frank to fall over onto his stomach.

“I’m only going to say this once,” Gerard said with a steely tone. “Leave Battery City and don’t ever come back. If you stay here, I’ll have no choice but to kill you.”

“Fuck that,” Frank spat out as he stood up. “We’re not leaving without you.”

“Then this is war,” Gerard said as he walked backwards. He knelt down to the floor and picked up what looked like the Director, although her eyes were closed and her entire torso looked stained with red. Her head and arms lolled out of Gerard’s grasp as he edged to the large, busted window.

“Don’t–” Mikey protested, but he was too late. Gerard jumped and dove out of the window. He was gone from our sight in a blink’s time. Mikey sprinted after him and held onto the window’s edge, watching as his brother fell.

“He’s got a chute!” he yelled out, sounding relieved.

Frank started to stand up and quickly muttered, “Damn it!”

Mikey continued to look out of the window, and Frank started to walk back somewhere in between the cubicles. He wasn’t too far from me, and caught my eye.

“What the hell? I told you to stay out there!” he yelled, still fuming.

I glanced down briefly then answered, “I’m sorry. But I needed to make sure you guys were alright.”

Frank had a livid frown on his face. “Yeah, we’re all-fucking-right!”

Mikey finally moved away from the window. “You think he’ll be waiting for us at the bottom?” he asked Frank as he moved through the cubicles toward us.

“I don’t know,” Frank muttered as he took his sheath off his back and replaced his sword inside it.

“What do you think he’s going to do with the Director? What’s going to happen to BL/ind?” Mikey asked.

“I don’t fucking know, Mikey!” Frank shouted as he turned to him. Mikey awkwardly closed his mouth and looked to the side.

Frank anxiously ran a hand through his hair, then slung his sword’s sheath over his shoulder. Mikey looked down at the floor, and his eyebrows rose as he spotted something.

“Her sword’s still here,” he announced to no one in particular as he pointed to the ground. “I wonder if Gerard took the Director to erase evidence that we killed her… but then he would have taken the sword, too, huh?”

“Who gives a shit, Mikey?” Frank sneered. “I think that’s the least of our worries since he got a fucking lobotomy with the side effect of him wanting to kill us!”

Mikey averted his eyes from Frank again and I decided to clear my throat and cut the tension.

“I talked to Ray, and told him to start phase 5,” I told them both.

“Good,” Frank shortly replied as he bent down and picked up the sword, which was lying not too far away from a large puddle of blood staining the carpet in the middle of the path between cubicles. “Let’s leave.”

We all started to speed walk together down the hallway. Once again, I started feeling a bit short of breath and a bit light-headed. The sting was coming back into my wound. I stopped momentarily, just to try and push it out of my head.

“Hey, you’re not looking good…” Frank said as he looked over at me. “Mikey, carry her!”

“I can walk…” I protested.

“Your face is fucking white as a ghost! Your whole shirt is drenched in blood–you’re not fine! Now shut up and let Mikey carry you!” Frank snapped at me, and then he continued to walk.

Mikey looked at me and shrugged, agreeing with Frank. He quickly swooped down and picked me up in his arms. One of his hands was just under my wound, which made it hurt more.

“Grr,” I growled out in pain as I tried to hang on to his neck.

“Hang in there,” he told me. He adjusted me in his arms, so he had an arm hooked under my knees and his other arm around my waist. I wrapped my arms around his back and leaned my chin onto his right shoulder, trying not to think about how every footstep jolted and pulsed in the wound.

Mikey and Frank continued to run up to the elevators and it immediately opened when they pressed the button. We got inside the elevator, and heard the machine whirr as it started its descent. We were all silent. Frank was just tapping the Director’s sword against his shoe, and Mikey just stood still while he carried me.

Then I felt Mikey’s hands clench tightly in their hold and he started to let out a guttural noise of pain.

“Arrghh….” he let out as he clenched his jaw and slumped backward against the elevator wall.

I lifted my chin up from his shoulder to look at his face. His eyes were closed shut and his skin was looking red, apart from the blood on his face.

“Mikey!” I exclaimed. What the hell is happening to him?

“Hey, hey, Mikey, you alright?” Frank asked, looking kindly concerned for the first time in the past five minutes.

Mikey didn’t respond and he seemed to stagger, but still carried me.

“Mikey, what is it?” I frantically asked.

“My… head…” he quietly gasped out. Then he opened his eyes and stared hazily ahead.

Frank got up close, and helped me get out of Mikey’s grip, so I could stand on my own. Mikey stayed slumped against the elevator wall, and then a few seconds later, he let out a deep exhale.

Frank and I looked between each other, wondering what that meant.

Mikey then blinked his eyes a few times and stood up straight. He looked down with a crease in his forehead and then he looked over at me intently.

“Leya…” he softly let out. Then in one move, he swept forward and wrapped his arms around me, holding me into a tight embrace.

I stood there, feebly hugging back because I was both confused and because my wound hurt with the pressure of his arms around my back.

“Mikey, are you okay?” Frank asked with a skeptical narrow of his eyes.

“I’m more than okay,” Mikey cheerfully answered as he turned to Frank and gave him a hug this time. Then he turned back to me with a bright look in his eyes.

“I remember… I remember everything!”


	26. Chapter 26

“I remember… I remember everything!”

I raised my eyebrows in confusion at Mikey. He was looking very lively, considering his face was all bruised and bloody, and he just found out his brother was working for BL/ind and wanted to kill us all.

“Leya, I missed you!” he hugged me again, harder this time.

“Ow!” I couldn’t help but let out.

“Oh, sorry, Leya!” he cried out, although he was still smiling brightly. “But didn’t you hear me? I remember. Everything I lost… it all just came back to me–God, it feels like I’ve been living in some bizarre dream for the last few months, but… it’s all there again.”

For a moment, the pain in my back disappeared. “You remember me? Like from before?” I asked.

“Yeah. Meeting you, the whole BL/ind prison thing, Sweetwater, and then the stuff that happened at SCARECROW–everything is back,” Mikey answered.

“Well, this is great news!” Frank said with a smile.

“Yeah, I don’t know what happened–it all just came rushing back right now,” Mikey said as he looked at nothing in particular.

Then he looked back at me. “Leya, I want to apologize. The way that I acted toward you for the most part of the last two weeks–I put you through a lot… And… I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault,” I answered, still just processing that he finally remembers me and is actually acting like he does. It felt slightly anti-climactic, yet I can’t help but sense that the air feels much lighter now.

Mikey made a small grimace. “Still… I feel really bad about it.”

“Well don’t!” I quickly replied.

“Well, at least one good thing came out of tonight,” Frank sighed as he looked over at Mikey.

“What are you talking about? We blew up SCARECROW, killed Korse, killed the Director–that’s three more things,” Mikey cheerfully argued.

“Yeah, but none of that matters when we can’t even save Gerard,” Frank muttered.

Mikey looked down.

“Maybe Ray was right. Maybe we shouldn’t have done this,” Frank continued.

“A little late for that kind of thinking now, don’t you think?” I asked as I crossed my arms–of course, I winced when that made my back hurt again.

Frank shot a dark look over at me and then turned away. A few seconds after, the elevator reached its destination and we stepped out.

“I’m looking at that wound ASAP,” Mikey said as he walked right behind me. “You’re bleeding a lot–we should have cleaned that up and prevented bleeding right when it happened. You know what, I’m just going to carry you again.”

Without a protest, I let Mikey bend down and lift me up again. I was so glad to have the worrywart back in full force.

We walked through a concrete hallway, then came out to a parking garage, where Ray was waiting just outside the hallway. He had loosened his tie and rolled the sleeves to his elbows. He looked somber.

“Holy shit–you all look like you just got out of Hell!” he exclaimed as we came out. I just remembered that we were all bloody to some not-so-mild extent.

“No, we’re still in it,” Frank muttered as he walked up to him. “Did you get a car for us to take?”

“Yep,” Ray answered. He waved his hand, “Come on, follow me and I’ll show you.”

We followed on and Ray asked Frank, “So… The Director…”

“Dead,” Frank answered with a look toward the floor.

Ray nodded. “And… Gerard?”

I could see Frank’s shoulders tense at the mention of his name. “He’s gone.”

Everyone was silent for a few seconds.

Then Ray spoke. “Here’s our car.” He stopped short at a mid-size, four-door car that was a shiny black and silver.

“And the bomb?” Frank asked.

“Set to go off in… nine minutes and forty-six seconds,” Ray said as he looked at the watch on his left wrist.

Frank nodded. “Well, get in kids.”

Mikey walked forward and opened the passenger door to the black car. Then he lowered me in. I winced as I rested my back against the leather seat, feeling soreness and sting.

“Thanks, Mikey,” I told him with a short smile, trying not to think about the pain.

“I should be the one saying thank you,” he answered as he opened the backseat door to go in. Frank entered through the other side and Ray got into the driver’s seat.

“You got shot?” Ray asked me once he started the car.

“Yeah. Gerard shot me,” I answered.

He looked away and his face turned a pale shade. “What the fuck is going on…?”

“Let’s just talk about it when we get home,” Frank snapped. “We need to get Leya stitched up first before she bleeds out.”

I groaned. “I’m fine. It’s just a–”

“If it was me, you’d be bitching about it, so shut up!” Frank yelled.

I felt my heart beat faster and tears started to well up in my eyes–not because I felt hurt by his words, but because I can tell how upset he is…and that’s making him act like an asshole. And I can’t stand it.

“Just calm down…” Mikey told him in a quiet voice.

“Calm down?” Frank scoffed. “He’s your fucking brother! Why the hell aren’t you freaking out about this–you know what? No. I said we’ll talk about this later.”

Mikey didn’t say anything after this. Ray drove up out of the parking garage and onto the street, where several BL/ind police cars were waiting and dozens of people stood staring while the fire department was trying to put out the flames at the SCARECROW building. The fire was still flaring through the destroyed building. Everything had happened so fast, that the fire department must have just arrived. But the damage was already done.

BL/ind police cars are obviously patrolling, but no one stopped us. No one suspected a thing. Even with a mass evacuation of BLI, it was probably so close to the end of the work day, or they thought it was because of the explosion at SCARECROW–Either way,for us to be in a black car leaving from BL/ind headquarters didn’t mean much.

Did we really get away with this coup so easily?

It was silent for a few minutes as Ray drove through the city. The streets were dark as night had already fallen, only illuminated by the surrounding streetlights and marquees along the buildings. Very few people were walking outside right now, and if I didn’t know about everything we did at SCARECROW and BL/ind, I wouldn’t have suspected that anything unusual happened today.

*bip-bip-bip-bip*

*bip-bip-bip-bip*

The high pitched beeping came from Ray’s watch.

“It’s the bomb,” he quickly explained. I turned around to look through the window–hurting my wound again. Mikey and Frank also whipped their heads around to look through the rear windshield. Beyond the hill we were climbing, we saw a burst of smoke rise above the skyline, appearing blue and purple from the haze and reflection of the city lights.

“Well, there goes BL/ind headquarters,” Mikey remarked as he stared out at it.

Frank said nothing and turned back around. Then he looked down toward his feet.

I don’t know if it was because the car ride was so smooth, or because I had really lost too much blood, but before I knew it, I had dozed off. I only realized this when I felt someone jerking at my left shoulder.

“…eya… Leya! Wake up!”

I blinked open my eyes and felt slightly sluggish. It was Mikey who had a hand clamped on my left shoulder. A bloody hand. That was my blood on his hand.

“What?” I lazily asked.

“You passed out–or fell asleep,” he explained calmly.

“We’re a few blocks away from the apartment,” Ray told me with a soft look. “We can’t park there, or else someone will find this stolen car–even without plates–and an investigation will be done. So we’re just going to have to ditch the car and walk.”

“Are you going to be okay to walk?” Mikey asked me. “I don’t mind carrying you again.”

“Why are you bothering asking her?” Frank muttered as he opened his car door and got out.

I looked down, feeling a bit annoyed at him. Then I turned to Mikey. “I think I can walk. But if not, I’ll let you know.”

Mikey nodded and then got out of the car. I opened my car door and was surprised to feel drops of water hit the top of my head.

“It’s raining,” I remarked as I put out my hand to catch the slow-falling drops. Then I held onto the side of the car, and hoisted myself up onto the sidewalk. My back felt very heavy now, but I would just have to push through it.

“Here, put on my jacket!” Ray said as he rushed forward over to me, draping the black jacket over my shoulders. “Can’t have you walking around with a bloody back, now can we?”

I smirked at this. “Thanks, Ray.” Although now his white dress shirt was starting to get soaked from the increasing rain.

I looked over at Mikey and Frank. Frank was dressed in his BL/ind agent uniform and Mikey put on a hoodie over his other jacket. They both still had blood and cuts on their faces.

“We’ll go in separate pairs,” Ray said as he handed his briefcase to Frank. Then he turned to me. “I’m gonna carry you so we can get there as soon as possible, Leya. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be out in the rain like this when you’re already wounded. So let’s go!”

I nodded quickly. Ray bent down and I held onto him while he picked me up. He had a much broader torso than Mikey, so it felt a bit more comfortable to be carried by him.

He turned to Frank and Mikey. “We’ll wait for you up by the apartment.”

“Okay,” Frank said while he and Mikey nodded.

Ray then turned around and began to run with me in his arms. At this speed, the rain drops fell quickly onto my head and into my eyes. Ray’s hair was starting to get drenched already, making the curls unfurl and making it look like his hair was a lot longer. After a couple minutes, we got to the apartment building and he put me down. Then the two of us walked in and went up the elevator. We waited at the end of the hall just at the door of Frank’s borrowed apartment.

Only a few minutes later did we see Mikey and Frank come up through the dark corridor, drenched just like us, but looking a bit cleaner, now that the blood had been rinsed off of their faces with the rain.

“Let’s get in quickly,” Frank said as he marched up to the door and scanned his card. Ray caught the door and let me go in first.

Frank had taken off his BL/ind mask and threw down his sword’s sheath onto the dining table before he walked over to his room. The rest of us followed into the apartment, and Mikey closed the door. I shrugged off Ray’s jacket and laid it onto a chair at the dining table. My hair was cold on my shoulders now that it was wet.But it was nice to come back to a place I could sort of call home. I feel like taking a bath and having a long sit.

Frank had been making a commotion over in his room, and he finally returned to the living room/kitchen area.

“Leya, get on the bed. Mikey, fix her up,” he tersely ordered as he started to take off the BL/ind uniform, which was drenched and revealing a bit of blood coming from his hip and his right arm.

Mikey hesitated, then went over to me. “He’s right. I need to look at the wound.”

I nodded and went over to Frank’s room, seeing that he had thrown off the covers onto the floor in a heap. I started to unbutton the white blouse that I had stained and ruined with my blood. As I extended my arms, I found that it hurt like hell to try and even take it off.

“Oh my god,” I whispered to myself as I retreated my right arm down to my side and instead shook my left sleeve off first, then slid the right one off with the help of my left hand. I saw all the blood for the first time. The entire right side of the back of the shirt was splashed with dark red, the splotches ebbing out at the edges like waves. That really was a lot of blood, huh?

“Oh… that looks gross,” I heard Mikey mutter from behind me.

“What? What’s wrong?” I frantically asked.

Mikey sighed. “You’re going to have to take off your undershirt. Actually, you might as well get comfortable and lay on the bed, on your stomach. This is going to be a tough one to patch up.”

“Is it bad?” Frank asked at the door. I turned to look at him, and he had his arms crossed. His eyes looked heavy with weariness and anxiety.

Mikey had just taken off his hoodie and was now taking off his red jacket. “There’s two openings in the wound…” He had said this quietly, as if he didn’t want me to hear. “So that means the laser went in and out of her skin. That means she’s got like a hollow tunnel of ripped muscle tissue in her back.”

Frank started to walk up to me and gestured for me to turn around, so I did.

“Oh…” Frank softly let out as he gently moved my wet hair to the side, across my left shoulder.

“It looks worse right now because it’s all bloody, but… it’s still going to need stitches. A lot of stitches…” Mikey said. Then he sighed. “I don’t know if I can just sew it up and it’s going to stay fine. We might have to take her to a hospital.”

“No,” Frank immediately argued.

Mikey gave him a raise of his eyebrow. “I know you guys have a lot of faith in me, but I’m not a real doctor! If this is infected, then–”

“Then you’ll just disinfect it!” Frank snapped. I turned around and saw him give Mikey a fuming gaze.

“Leya’s from Battery City. If we take her to the hospital, then–”

“Remember what happened the last time we went to the hospital?” Frank asked. “I’m not risking that again. Do your job. Fix her up.”

Mikey looked over at Frank with a defeated gaze.

“It’s okay, Mikey. I trust you,” I told him. He looked over at me and gave me a feeble smile.

“See, she trusts you. That’s all that matters,” Frank said as he turned to me again. “You’re going to be fine, Leya.” Then he turned and left the room.

Mikey gulped, then he went over to me. “Leya… I don’t know if I can fix this. If something goes wrong, and it gets infected, it’s going to get worse.”

“Then we’ll just hope for the best,” I said, hiding how scared this was actually making me feel to see him so nervous about a small surgery.

He nodded quickly, then went into the bathroom to start getting supplies.

I tried to take off my black camisole with one arm, but even the slightest movements hurt my wound. I hissed in pain as I tried to lift up my right arm so I could pull the shirt off.

Mikey bolted back out of the bathroom. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I breathed out. “I just… I can’t take off my shirt. Can you like…give me some scissors or something?”

Mikey quickly nodded and then went back into the bathroom. “Just lay on the bed like I told you, take your shoes off, get comfortable…”

I took my boots off and then the slacks, so I was still wearing my jeans. Then I carefully laid down onto my stomach, trying to stress my back as little as possible. I never knew how much I used my upper back muscles until one of them got ripped out, haha… I brought my arms up and rested my chin on my hands, making sure my long hair was combed out of my face and off of my back.

Then Mikey came back out of the bathroom and got on the left side of the bed, putting down his supplies: A first-aid-kit box, a bottle of iodine, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, needles and thread, tons of gauze and bandages, and a bowl of water with a small white towel. Then he sat on the left side of the bed next to me and brought scissors with him.

“You sure you want me to cut your shirt off?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m sure!” I said. I really don’t care at this point.

“Okay,” Mikey replied as he went forward and started snipping away, the cold steel of the scissors touching my bare back, making goosebumps prickle up my spine. He moved the split shirt to the sides and then he let out a sigh.

“Can you…” he hesitated, “…take off your bra? The straps are getting in the way of the wound. I won’t look!”

I turned my head to look at him, and indeed, he was looking to the side with an embarrassed look on his face.

I slightly laughed at this and said, “Well, you’re in a better position to do that, considering it hurts like hell every time I bend my arms back. I’ll make sure you don’t see anything,” I told him with a smirk.

“Oh, okay,” he said, still looking kind of nervous as I held the remains of my camisole and my bra close to my chest. I felt him grab at the middle of the band and he unhooked it and brought the straps out to the sides. “I’m really sorry if this is making you uncomfortable.”

“It’s not,” I muttered. I think the only one feeling uncomfortable here is Mikey…

He started to clean up the blood off my back with warm water, and then alcohol. He was gentle, and didn’t scrub too much at it, which I was grateful for since the skin around my wound felt very sensitive to pain right now. After a minute, he stopped and squeezed the bloody towel into the bowl of water.

He cleared his throat. “I feel like I should tell you that this is the second time I’ve had to work on you with your top off.”

“What?!” I asked as I turned to him with a crease in my eyebrows. “When the hell did that happen?”

Mikey’s eyes widened. “No, no, no–don’t get the wrong idea! Back at Sweetwater, when you were…dead… I had to lift up your shirt so I could directly use the power glove and send volts to your heart. You still had your bra on, don’t worry.” He shortly paused. “I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling my cheeks burn. God, why did that make me feel so embarrassed? Oh, yeah, you know, just dead and in front of Mikey and the other guys with only a bra and pants on– _totally not embarrassing._

“Anyway, yeah, kind of funny…” he awkwardly said with a laugh that turned into a groan.

I started to laugh at this. “You know, I never really thanked you properly for that.”

“For what?” he asked.

“For saving my life,” I answered. “If it weren’t for you I would be dead.”

“Well, the other guys helped…” Mikey qualified.

“But you were the one who gave me the power glove in the first place,” I answered. “If you never did, I wouldn’t have had it on me at the time–and who knows if you guys would have found another way to revive me. I would have been dead. So yeah, you’re the only reason I’m still alive, Mikey. Thank you.”

“There’s no need to thank me,” he replied. “You saved my life, too. More than once. If you didn’t take this nasty laser wound for me, I probably would be dead right now. Gerard aimed to kill…”

I lowered my eyes. “Are you sure about that?”

“He’s a really good shot,” Mikey argued.

“Then he could have killed me, too, all those other times he shot at me. But he missed,” I said.

Mikey was silent for a few seconds.

“I don’t know…” I said, thinking about the painful look Gerard had in his eyes when Mikey shot him at BL/ind headquarters. “I don’t think he’s completely gone. Not yet.”

Mikey was quiet as he started to pour some liquid on my wound, which stung.I growled out in pain and grabbed onto the headboard so I didn’t move too much. I felt myself shudder involuntarily.

“Sorry, I should have warned you!” Mikey apologized. “I’m just doing the best I can to clean the outside of the wound so it doesn’t get infected, if it isn’t already infected. I’m going to have to clean inside the wound, too, so… brace yourself.”

“Okay,” I breathed out.

Despite my will, I groaned, screamed, and even shed a few tears as Mikey cleaned the inside of my wound with tissues tapered to the end of the blunt end of a scalpel. I had never felt a pain like this in my life.

Frank ran inside once he heard me scream for the third time. “Leya,” he softly exclaimed. “Is everything alright?”

I heard him get up close to the side of the bed as he knelt down.

“Hey…” he said, sounding more like his usual kind self. He reached over and grabbed my right hand. I didn’t want to look over at him because I had tears in my eyes, but I gave in anyway. He was looking at me with upturned eyebrows, the puppy dog look of concern.

“You’re going to be okay, alright?” he told me.

Mikey stopped for a few seconds and turned to Frank. “So far everything looks clean. I’m just taking extra precautions. Then I’m going to start the stitches.”

Frank nodded quickly. “Yeah, sure!” he still held onto my hand. “Hey, look… I’m sorry for being a jerk tonight. I…”

“I know,” I told him as I squeezed his hand. I didn’t need him to tell me what was going on inside his head.

He looked at me, his eyes getting moist as he smiled. “Just… don’t ever scare me like that again. I’ve had to watch you die once, you know. It wasn’t fun.”

I smiled at Frank. Then he let go of my hand and stood up.

“Is there anything I can help with?” he asked Mikey.

Mikey took one last wipe of stinging gauze at the inside of my wound and then answered, “I think I’m good on my own. But if you want to sit and watch, be my guest.”

“What? No–get out of here–I’m…I’m exposed!” I said while I brought my hands over my chest, even though I was perfectly covered on that front.

Frank giggled. “What–you got to sit next to me when I had my face stitched up. I don’t see why this is any different.”

“It’s already bad enough that Mikey has to see me like this–I don’t want you to see me like this, either!”

I could sense Mikey and Frank look at each other, although I’m not sure what kind of look it was.

“Alright, I’ll leave you alone,” Frank said with a snicker. Then he left and closed the door.

Mikey sighed. “With luck, this will only take me like five minutes. I’m not sure how deep I’ll have to make the stitches, so… just try and have patience.”

“Alright,” I said, waiting for the worst as I saw him tie the string to a needle. Then a few seconds later, I felt him place a firm hand on my back, where it felt sore. The pierce of the needle hurt so bad, the pain seemed to ripple from the piercing point. I tried hard not to think about it, or the feel of the thread as it wound through two pieces of my skin.

“This will be better if you relax. Try not to tense up,” Mikey quietly told me, pausing before taking the next stitch.

“I’ll try…” I said as I exhaled through my mouth.

Mikey took the needle and went down into my skin again. Since I was prepared this time, it hurt a little less. After a few more stitches, I tried to start talking to distract myself.

“So… you remember everything now? How do you know it’s everything?” I asked Mikey.

He continued stitching as he answered, “It’s like I said, everything just came flooding back–not only events, but the way I felt and knew about everything. Even small things. You see, before, when I was getting bits of my memory, it was like I just caught a 3-second clip of a memory. Nothing else. But when everything came back, everything came back jumbled, not in order, but still connected. And I feel the way I felt four months ago. When I had amnesia, I didn’t feel like me at all.”

“That sounds confusing,” I mused out loud as Mikey made more stitches in my back, irritating my skin.

Mikey laughed. “Let’s just say that before, it was like a wall was put up to keep me from remembering my memories and the way I felt about my memories, and now that wall crumbled, so everything is there that was there before. Everything worth remembering anyway. I mean, I can’t remember what I ate on a given day, but that’s normal.”

I smiled. “So… do you remember things that only you and I talked about?”

“Like what?”

“I’m not telling you. You tell me. That’s how I’m testing you,” I replied with a smirk.

“Hmm… okay…” Mikey said as he thought about this and held the needle in his hand for a few seconds. “I remember… you saying that you never had a date in high school.”

“Awesome, the one thing you remember about me,” I muttered.

Mikey laughed. “Okay… um… I remember that you didn’t like Joy Division, but you loved ‘Eyes Without A Face’ by Billy Idol. I mean, great song, but really? How do you like Billy Idol and not Joy Division?”

“Okay, you definitely remember everything…” I smiled, thinking back to that memory, that even I had barely remembered.

Mikey continued to stitch at me. “You know, that was some pretty funny shit, you playing music I liked at the Black Widow to get me to notice you,” he said with a laugh. “God, that must have been horrible, trying to figure out if it was me or not when I didn’t even have a clue who you were.”

I scoffed. “Yeah, it _was_ horrible… Thanks for bringing it up.”

“Sorry, it’s just… It’s really weird, remembering how I was when I had amnesia. It feels like remembering a completely different person’s life.”

I felt another sharp tug at my skin with the needle. If this is anything remotely to what it feels like to get a tattoo, I don’t want one!

We were quiet for the next few minutes as Mikey stitched the other side of my laser wound. Then he got the bandages out and started to tape them over the stitches and in between.

“I want to say thank you, too,” he told me as he smoothed down one piece of surgical tape. Then he stopped. “You never gave up on me. When I had forgotten you, when I hurt you, when I probably did everything possible to alienate you–you could have left, but you didn’t. You didn’t have to be nice to me. You didn’t have to check up on me when I had those nightmares. You didn’t have to try and become friends with me again. But you did all of that anyway, and I think it helped me a lot. So thank you.”

“You were one of my best friends,” I replied. “So there was no way that I wasn’t going to try my hardest to bring you back from the dead, too.”

Mikey was quiet, but I felt like I could sense him smile.

“Well, that’s that…” he said with an exhale as he firmly stuck the last piece of tape on the wound. It feels sore, but at least it’s closed up now. “Now you just better drink a lot of water and eat something since you lost a lot of blood.”

In a few minutes, I got dressed in fresh clothes again and went to the living room. While Mikey was fixing me up, Ray had patched up Frank’s wounds from his fight with the Director. And now Mikey was in the bathroom, cleaning up his own face.

Ray, Frank, and I were now sitting in the living room and watching TV. The newscast was obviously reporting on the blasts at SCARECROW and BL/ind headquarters.

_“…It is unknown if these blasts are related to the blast that occurred last month, but some eyewitnesses claim to have the whole story.”_

The camera cut to a reporter who was standing under an umbrella next to a middle aged blonde woman, whose blue eyes looked wide.

_“I was there, there were two men on the TV screen just after the blast at SCARECROW. They said they were the Fabulous Killjoys–”_

_“Ahahahahaha, Fabulous Killjoys–but they’re dead!”_ the reporter guffawed.

The woman had furrowed her brow.

_“I’m not lying! The two men, they were dressed in weird colorful clothing… they said that we all had to get out or they would kill us!”_

The camera then cut to another eyewitness, an African-American man dressed in a gray business suit who looked like he was in his thirties.

_“Oh, I saw it. There were two explosions at SCARECROW. And then there was an explosion here at BLI. And now it’s raining. I’m not usually a man of superstition, but someone in this city has obviously been messing with something jinxing._

_"Jinxing?”_

_“Yeah, you know, like Hoodoo.”_

_“Voodoo?’_

_"No! Hoodoo–very different. Anyway, this was no accident–”_

The camera cut back to the office, where a woman with short blonde hair was wearing a freakishly wide smile on her face.

_“While the blasts are being investigated, there is no question that many of us are expected to panic. But worry not, I am sure that there is a perfectly rational explanation for this. Tomorrow, we will have an exclusive press conference with the SCARECROW General himself. For now, have a good evening and have a better tomorrow!”_

“The SCARECROW General?” Ray questioned with a bent brow.

“They must mean Gerard,” Frank muttered as he put his chin on his hands.

“Is he really going to show himself on TV?” I asked.

No one answered, but we all kept our eyes on the TV. The news had changed to the beginning of some weird program that was half cartoon, half live action. Frank picked up the remote and turned it off.

Just after, Mikey came into the living room. “Anything interesting on the news?”

“Gerard’s going to give a press conference tomorrow,” Ray muttered as he looked down.

“Oh…” was all Mikey said before he sat down on the couch. He had small band-aids on his eyebrow and spots of clear ointment spread over the cuts on his face.

The four of us sat in silence.

Gerard was the enemy now. How did this happen? After we all tried so hard to look for him? Are we ever going to get him back? What do we do now?

Frank was the first one to speak.

“I don’t know what to say, guys…” he started. “I don’t know what to do. For the first time in five months, I don’t have a plan. Not even a poorly thought-out one.”

It was silent between us again for a few seconds.

“You did the best you could. We all did,” said Ray as he kept his arms crossed.

“At least we took down the Director. And Korse. We got revenge,” Mikey added.

I think everyone expected me to speak next, but I didn’t know what to say.

Frank looked over at me. “How do you feel, Leya?”

I looked up at him. How do I feel? I feel like shit. And my back fucking hurts because my old friend Gerard shot me when I stopped him from shooting his little brother.

I didn’t say any of the thoughts I was thinking. Instead, I took in a deep breath and stood up. “I said I was going to save Gerard. I said I was going to find him and save him. We all said that. But I don’t know if we can save him anymore. Especially when he has no interest in being saved and would rather kill us.”

No one said anything. Probably because they were all thinking the same thing. I turned to the window, where rain was pouring down in small trails down the glass.

“I think everyone’s avoiding the question,” Frank finally said. “What do we do now?”

I thought about that seriously. What am I going to do now? We’re in Battery City. But Gerard declared war. Sooner or later, we’re going to meet up in a clash. He won’t stop until we’re dead or brainwashed ourselves. Maybe we should leave.But no… I do have another reason to be here besides Gerard.

“What do you want to do, Frank?” Ray asked.

“I want my best friend back,” Frank said as he looked down at the floor, his eyes looking pained. “I want us to go home. I want to hear him talk about stupid geeky shit, I want to hear that stupid laugh of his when he thinks he’s funny if he makes a short joke about me. I want to see that goofy, creepy, and crooked teeth-baring smile back on his face.”

Mikey was looking up at Frank, tears in his eyes.

Ray made a sad smile. “I guess it looks like we’re staying then…”

“What do you mean?” Mikey asked, wiping his eyes.

“I mean… we all want Gerard back, don’t we?” Ray said as he looked between all of us. “For the past five months, I’ve been telling myself that it was likely he was dead. And that trying to look for him here would be like trying to find a four-leaf clover in the Zones. But he ended up being alive. And… he’s been my friend for so long. He’s been there for me so many times in the past. He wouldn’t want us to give up on him. Or maybe he would, but I owe it to him to help him.”

Mikey nodded. “No, you’re absolutely right.” He sniffed away another tear. “He’s my older brother. He’s been there for me…my whole life. And I’m not letting him go this easily.”

They all then looked at me. I sighed and looked down.

“If we find a way to help Gerard, I’ll help you guys,” I started. “But you should know that I have something more important to do while I’m here in Battery City.”

Frank looked up at me with a narrowed eye.

I cleared my throat. “Before I met you guys, I was on the same mission that I’m still on. And that’s finding my sister, Krys. If I had found out you guys were really dead, I still would have come back to Battery City.”

“Why?” Ray asked me with a concerned stare.

“Korse told me she was alive. That my parents had seen her. That means that she has to be back here in Battery City,” I replied.

“Leya, what if Korse was lying?” Frank told me.

“Yeah, he might have been, but what if he wasn’t? He knew her name, he knew my parents’ names, and he said they identified her a few months ago. She’s somewhere in this city and I have to find her.”

They all gave me serious looks of doubt.

“So you’re leaving?” Ray asked.

“No…” I said, now understanding why they looked so somber. “I don’t have a home to go to. And if my parents ever saw me again, they wouldn’t hesitate to turn me in to BL/ind police. I can’t go home. And I can’t exactly get myself an apartment.”

The guys nodded in understanding.

“So… if you’ll still have me, I’d like to stay with you guys,” I sheepishly started. “But you should know that my number one priority is going to be finding my sister, not Gerard.”

Frank walked over to me, then clapped a hand on my left shoulder. “You’re always welcome to stay with us, Leya. You’re family.” He smiled.

I looked to Mikey and Ray and they also smiled.

“Of course we’d still have you,” Ray told me.

“You don’t even need to ask,” Mikey told me with a smile from the corner of his mouth.

I smiled at them, feeling tears threaten to come out from my lower eyelids. “Thanks, guys.”

Frank breathed in deeply and patted my shoulder again. “Well, it’s a nice rainy night. I say we spend it relaxing. After all, tomorrow’s a new day. And tonight is ours.”

I smiled at him as we moved to sit back down on the couch.

“Oh! Yeah, I don’t know if I told you, but…” Frank leapt up and ran over to the kitchen. He then opened up the freezer and took what looked like three little white tubs. “I went and bought us ice cream. You know, for when it was all over…” He looked down awkwardly. “Anyway, I checked, and it’s all regular ice cream–no chemicals. I also bought chocolate and strawberry syrup and nuts, so we could make sundaes.”

Just the fact that Frank went out and bought ice cream after our conversation made me so happy that I might really cry.

“Dude, you got ice cream?!” Mikey said, his eyes shining out of happiness instead of grief now.

“When’s the last time we even had ice cream?” Ray asked as he stood up.

“Yeah, I know. I’m awesome,” Frank said with a laugh. Then he looked over at me. “Stay there, Leya! You just take it easy and I’ll bring it all over to you!”

Frank went ahead and juggled all the items, bringing them to the table. Then he ran back to the kitchen and brought bowls and utensils, and then we all dug in.

“Thank you for this,” I told Frank as I turned to him with a bowl of ice cream on my lap.

He shrugged in return. “Thank you for the genius idea. I didn’t know it, but it’s exactly what I needed after a day like today.”

I wrapped my left arm around his shoulder and smiled to him. He smiled to me in return. Then we went on eating our ice cream, and talked of things that had no relevance to today. It was a perfect end to a trying day.

People in Battery City try to kid themselves and drug themselves into believing that they can live in a perfect world or become perfect people, but it’s all a lie. Nothing is ever perfect. Still, I now understand a bit why they try. Pretending that everything is perfect is a lot easier than facing reality. And when you’re feeling good, even if caused by something outside of yourself, something like the sweet taste of ice cream or the chemicals induced by a pill, you really can believe that everything is perfect. Even if it’s only for a little while.

And it’s that little sliver of perfection that allows us to get by for just one more night.

  
  


  
  


TO BE CONCLUDED in "The Last of All The Rides We Take"


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